HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

I bought this looking like it just needing to go in the bin, arm smashed, scratched and damaged all over. BUT Lenco's are built like brick shite houses so for £16 on ebay it was a bargain. I found the time over a few months to play with and get it looking reasonable and then off to TT maestro DSJR to sort the bearing and get everything running right. Arm is another of my collection of NEAT Japanese arms from the late 1960's, cost me less than £50 a few years ago. OK so all be jealous.

Though there is a small downside GL69 so it is a steel platter so MC carts are not a good idea. Running it with a Grado, sounds really good. No hum which is unusual with Grado carts and no platter ringing due to my clever applied doping . Solid music as with all better rim drives, they do have a musical way with them.

That’s so nice looking- yep jealous- Lenco is on my ‘lust’ of purchases -one day

My problem is I keep finding special things that are under the radar, or silly cheap. And I get the L69 up and running and I spot this on ebay - I simply have to have it as I have the perfect NEAT arm for it, so it can be my sleeper for the winter. This is the late 50's / early 60's Japanese version of the Garrard 301. Anyway couple of pics.

That's a nice turntable. I have a Kenwood idler turntable that also has tubes fitted to oil the motor bearings. A great idea.

Love to see you guys ebay watch lists

Dr Bunsen Honeydew wrote: ↑Wed Sep 12, 2018 9:11 pm My problem is I keep finding special things that are under the radar, or silly cheap. And I get the L68 up and running and I spot this on ebay - I simply have to have it as I have the perfect NEAT arm for it, so it can be my sleeper for the winter. This is the late 50's / early 60's Japanese version of the Garrard 301. Anyway couple of pics.

I saw that one and did think about buying it as it was cheap but I didn't have a clue if any good or not, mind you I'm trying to avoid buying extra kit so I left it.

Be nice to see it once set up.

The best way to develop some expertise regarding anything in audio is to START FROM THE BOTTOM!

In my case as a child, I grew up with the Collaro Conquest changer with its simple but very novel mechanism. I was presented with old BSR autochangers out of mostly junked record players, taking them apart and finding out how they work, how the production engineering was done (these things and the finer Garrard equivalents were churned out by the tens of thousands back then and yet they're not total cack by any means, as the eternal Garrard SP25 was basically a posh single play 'Autoslim' with fancier looking tonearm as was the BSR MP60 [P128?] which was based on the auto line they made in the late 60's). Then to discover how seriously good a better ceramic cartridge can be once loaded up (definitely some great sonic points amongst the high surface noise in the better ones). If like me, you then graduate to the better large format Garrard decks (the Zero 100 is one of the best known using this chassis) and then to say, the Pioneer PL12-AC that the Doc had not long ago, to learn about belt drives. I then had my first Lenco, a well cared for GL75 and with tonearm V blocks sorted, I still feel it sounds great even before you carve one up and fit some third party tonearm - all too easy to rip the original arm off, even if its serviceable and modern cartridges can actually work well in one - I'd also like to see how good or bad a stock GL72 can be with something better fitted than the ubiquitous Goldring G850 which many had as standard...

It was some time before I was let loose on a Thorens 150/160, let alone SME arms and the LP12, together with the better direct drives around and about and my beloved Duals, but I felt I had some grounding first...

It's easy to dive in with little experience to a top line deck from forty odd years ago, stick a fancy metal mat on it and get fellow forum posters cooing in envy and amazement, but quite another to find something unlikely that can perform way above its original humble station with a little work, knowledge and experience applied - and far more fun too ime...

I think the main problem with the Lenco arms are they look horrible and badly engineered.

BTW that above by Dave is how to become a real hifi Guru not a pretend one. The only path is experience, and lots of it, like all hobbies. BUT as in all hobbies beware of the false guru. There are two prominent types - The ego guru, "what I have is best so do what I do" which closes the mind, then if they do happen to find something better then no mention of that but the new is then "what I have is best so do what I do", Marco is a classic example of this one. The second is the flappy eared tongue hanging out puppy dog, new to the hobby, spouting stoopidity most of the time, but always right, normally they become a box swoppers, classic example Bigman80. If you get stuck in this trench for many years you become a mature box swopper who just can't stop it, but at least they hear lots of stuff, even if they cannot relate to it and just go round and round in circles, exampled by Jerry (JandL100).

Most hobbyist will not get to guru status and you really don't need to, they are sad people really with obviously nothing better to do but it is infectious and men must have a hobby. For most people it is enough to have good ears and good music.

I don't have a lot of experience in hearing different stuff but the stuff I have owned has all been pulled apart, modified and then pulled apart again. Then there is the stuff I have built myself.

Not sure where that puts me. Never will be a guru and don't want to be.