The one that started all the fuss! Over at Audiogon Jean was suggesting new arms and heavy plinths for L75s. The L75 bearing is very well made, and the platter is a heavy (8lbs) alloy casting machined to a nice finish. (see photo in 'Platters' page here)
Motor is the regular Lenco shaded pole induction unit as used in all Lencos way back to the mid sixties, maybe longer. The bearing is bigger than the more lightweight GL55 to support the much heavier platter. So far so good, now the bad news.
The arm? While some people say the arm is ok and if they are happy I am happy, I have had no luck at all with using anything but low compliance cartridges. The Shure M55e is as high as I would go and this combination does work very well. I once tried a Shure M75ed but the way the cantilever wobbled from side to side trying to drag that monster of a headshell around did not inspire confidence. So cartridge choice is limited. The headshells are not fun to use imo, requiring the use of specific length screws to match the cartridge. Then we have the knife edge bearings and their support blocks. Some blocks are made of black plastic? material and are not too bad, but others have off-white soft blocks that just slice thro in use. If you're getting the impression I would rather use a different arm then you are following me perfectly. However if anyone is staying with the Lenco arm do yourself a favour and search the VinylAsylum for a poster named Traddles, author of a great post that describes refurbishing the arm. Arm removal pics here.
Update Jan 2005 - Looks like a big piece of humble pie for yours truly. Spent a couple of hours with a 75 arm and with the tweaks described here it's working well and sounding very good. Drat now I've got get cartridges in all my spare headshells, and I still don't like them. Ah well.
Back to this page ............. still good because the Linn is a great tweak too. :-)
I did not want to cut up the deck as I've seen folks do back in the 70s to fit SME 3009s. Enter Linn who make a range of arms all of which follow the same 229mm stylus to pivot specs. With an overhang of 18mm that gives pivot to spindle length of 211.
The Lenco arm mount is set at 210mm spindle to pivot. Linn arms use 211mm. Close enough!
The LVV arm fits in the Lenco arm collar using the 2 existing grub screws. Too easy :-) Btw I did file the Linn collar to fit the Lenco hole, which has a flat section. You can just see the flat in this picture. I decided not to drill the holes to mount this collar as the Lenco collar holds the arm adequately. It's an easy fix for the full Linn look tho'.
My LVV had been around and the plastic housing containing the lift/lower and anti skate fittings was cracked and brittle. I removed it and decided to use the Lenco lift/lower which works well and also use the Lenco anti skate if possible.
The first test setup a la Zen Audio, skeleton style. Plywood board on tent pole offcuts for legs. Anti-skate not yet fitted. The sound indicates this combination is worth pursuing.
You gotta love those sticky fuzzy thingies. Small strip under the arm for lift/lower and also one on top holding the anti skate thread. Diameter of Linn pillar is a tad smaller than the Lenco, so some card acts as padding and to help the anti skate corkscrew bracket grip the pillar. Same card cut as a washer between Lenco collar and deck plate. Nothing hi-tec but it works. Picture below shows the metal idler wheel, and the Linn arm even fits the Lenco arm rest.
I found an old TD150 plinth in the garage and used that under the ply top to keep the mains away from fingers and hide the mechanism.
The thing sounded so good I had to get another one to make a nice plinth for it. Putting my Thorens back in the system just did not cut the mustard. Mk2 to follow................ and an alternative 75 project here.
