advertisement


Goldring Lenco 88

wylton

wylton

Naim and Mana member
I don't know if anybody else spotted it, but a Goldring Lenco '88' went for £330 on eBay over the weekend, and the same seller sold a Goldring Lenco P77 broadcast standard 12" tone arm for £1220!

I don't think I've ever seen an '88' go for that much; I have one up in the shed, I really must find the time to refurbish it, it's a bit noisy at the moment, probably because it needs a new idler wheel.

I've already let two 301's (a cream and a silver) pass through my hands for next to nothing, due to not having the time to work on them; I'll be hanging on to this one!
 
A few months ago I watched a Leak Delta Lenco L75 go for over £300. Timing and location seem to be the factors that determine these higher prices.
 
norriemal said:
A few months ago I watched a Leak Delta Lenco L75 go for over £300.
Click to expand...

Yes, I had one of those too; a guy at work gave it to me, but again it just sat up in the shed; I haven't got a very good record of hanging on to this good old stuff! The thing is, that the 75's weren't very well thought of until relatively recently.
 
Nostalgia is a wonderful thing but unless they are being purchased by competant DIY'ers I wonder how many of the Lencos that sell on the bay end up back up there?
 
Having owned an L75 I can understand why they weren't well though of when they came out. Arm was fair, speed accuracy not bad except that silly incremental speed changer (fun at parties, though) but it was the rumble that got me. Never cured it.

However, if you're willing to rebuild the plinth and change the arm, they are apparently pretty good, and there value has certainly skyrocketed given what you paid a few years back. The problem is that a) it tends to be forums where people rave about the upgrades b) there's no consistency in deciding what makes a good plinth and c) few have a reference to compare with when extolling the virtues of the modified decks.

That said, I did pick up a lower range Lenco to have a play with at some point in the future, and have to admit if ever there was a plinth designed to magnify unpleasant vibrations, the Lenco has one.
 
I run a heavily modified GL55 in a slate plinth and can honestly say I have never heard the famed Lenco rumble.

From my experience there are 2 establish routes to good plinths - layered plywood or slate. If you spend some time on Lenco Heaven then it is clear that there are an infinite number of variations of both.

I took the slate route mainly because that I hate doing woodwork.

Back to the original thread I don't get why someone would want to pay £1.2k for a Lenco arm or for that matter £330 for an 88.
 
88 is sought after but ditching and Lenco top plate for a PTP is better (sonically) imo. I think the inflated prices 88s go for today is more to do with looks than performance.

A few months ago I watched a Leak Delta Lenco L75 go for over £300.
Click to expand...

That's bonkers!
 
It was a classic auction and it looked like two guys really wanted it and would not back down. I think it went for £330 in the end.
 
avole said:
Having owned an L75 I can understand why they weren't well though of when they came out. Arm was fair, speed accuracy not bad except that silly incremental speed changer (fun at parties, though) but it was the rumble that got me. Never cured it.

However, if you're willing to rebuild the plinth and change the arm, they are apparently pretty good, and there value has certainly skyrocketed given what you paid a few years back. The problem is that a) it tends to be forums where people rave about the upgrades b) there's no consistency in deciding what makes a good plinth and c) few have a reference to compare with when extolling the virtues of the modified decks.

That said, I did pick up a lower range Lenco to have a play with at some point in the future, and have to admit if ever there was a plinth designed to magnify unpleasant vibrations, the Lenco has one.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%. I replaced mine with a Pioneer PL12D back in the day, and it sounded so much better than the GL75.

Chris
 
I think the thing to remember is that some of the decks held in high esteem now, weren’t much liked in their day, mostly because of the mounting arrangements and because the importance of the plinth wasn’t fully realised. To a certain extent, the same applies to the direct drive decks; they were given pretty short thrift in the hi-fi press at the time. Of course, some of them were rubbish because of poorly designed servo systems and also because of the light weight, resonant plinths and poor quality arms. The better direct drive decks were not very often given a fair chance because Linn seemed to have a strangle-hold on the press.

I must admit though, it would be fun to rescue the 88 from the shed, put it in a nice plinth and mount a decent arm and cartridge to see how it performs against the LP12. The last time that I fired it up, it sounded pretty good, but was plagued by high levels of motor noise; as I said it needs a new idler wheel and plinth.
 
I certainly understand where Chris is coming from. My tt journey went Lenco (albeit light platter), Sony, Dual, LP12, Lenco.

The standard arm, top plate and plinths did nothing for the Lencos and I would not have given them a moment's thought had I not heard a properly sorted one a couple of years back. What I have now only uses an original motor, the idler and the platter - these are the components which are world class on a standard Lenco. The rest went by the wayside. What I have left is brilliant…but is this really a Lenco anymore?
Finished1.jpg
 
With the Ittok maybe I should call it a Linnco. After all, I've got rid of all the bad Lenco bits and All the bad Linn bits.;)
 
Nic, got interrupted, sorry. The out of the box Lenco wasn't that good, because of the rumble that plagued it and an arm that was nothing special. I got mine for next to nothing before the rebuild craze started, and would honestly have to say it was not good. Never cured the rumble, and the arm was never an outstanding tracker. The speed changing mechanism was (and is) primitive.

Time moves on, but the 'good' Lencos now bear little relation to the old for the reasons you say. So, you don't have a Lenco but something much better.

By the way, I have recently acquired another Lenco with the intntion of doing some of the mods at some stage - despite the problems with my original, I always thought it was superbly built. Trouble is I've just rebuilt a thorens turntable, Lenco's great rival, and it sounds soo good...
 
Fair enough. Must disagree about the speed changer. For me it's brilliantly done and so simple.

I think going the whole hog with rebuilding is the only way. Plinth and top plate are ghastly. That said I've got a lovely mint 70 from 1963 that deserves to be done minimally, perhaps just a nice ply plinth.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top