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Lenco GL75 - potential überdeck?

H

horace

pfm Member
A squint at TonyL's Lenco thread prompted me to trawl the web re my GL75. Well, who'd have thought - apparently it has great potential and with a bit of work (heavy plinth, better arm) can sound very good. I'd never have guessed.
My question is, how good? Some of the Lencoheads on the web really go to town (it's better than this, better than that - in some cases, better than anything.....). So, is it an overlooked Garrard wannabe, or just a reasonably good deck?

My own example came from a charity shop many moons ago. It was still boxed, never used and remains in mint condition. It came sans plinth, but I managed to source a god-awful teak one and put it in that. It sounded OK, I suppose (once I'd replaced the bizzarre rubber arm v-block thingies, which had perished in storage).

I have a mint (also unused) Mayware Formula IV unipivot (minus counterweight - must get that sorted) which is crying out for a new home on the Lenco. I've downloaded drawings for a heavy plinth and I'm ready to go.

So, will my efforts be rewarded with a Linn, NAS and whatever-else killer? I quite fancy the thought of being able to sell my LP12 in favour of the Lenco - it has a rather nice air of solidity about it.....I reckon it will outlive me, anyway.

Grateful for your input.

Cheers

Martin
 
They are *potential* beasts, so go for it. The biggest snag is the heavy base plate which doess not lend itself to building armboards or alternative arms. This is why most have 12" arms, so you can get off the plate and onto the plinth.

The Mayware 4 is a good arm, I had one on a Thorens 150 with custom plinth, the aesthetics aren't great but they sound really good. File under hadcock rival.:)

My pal's dad has about 3 in the loft, i must get one off him as a project.:)
 
I gave up my LP12 in favour of a Lenco GL75 in a heavy plinth. The Lenco was so much better than the LP12 in terms of sound. You do however have to put a fair bit of work into the Lenco to get it to really sing. I would say go for it but keep the LP12 just in case you don't like the sound.

Replacing the stock Lenco arm seems on the face of it straightforward but remember the geometry is similar to Linn so a Rega arm for instance is not a simple drop in fit. The Lenco platter is also very low in relation to the arm so some headshell spacers are usually called for.

I tried modding the stock Lenco arm as well as shortening an RB250. The main leap forward however was an offboard 12'' unipivot arm.

All depends on how much DIY you want to do.
 
horace said:
A squint at TonyL's Lenco thread prompted me to trawl the web re my GL75. Well, who'd have thought - apparently it has great potential and with a bit of work (heavy plinth, better arm) can sound very good. I'd never have guessed.
Click to expand...

All the heavy platter Lencos are virtually identical, i.e. the main difference between your L75 and my L70 is the arm, the mechanics are interchangeable. There are some small differences in the platter, but that's it. Likewise with the GL59 (early UK L70), GL60, G88 & G99, the latter two being UK arm-less designs.

I get the impression that the Lenco's weakness, the somewhat flimsy pressed steel top plate, can actually be turned into an advantage by direct coupling it to a massy constrained layer damped plinth. This certainly appears to be the key to getting these decks to really work.

The L75 arm is apparently not as bad as one would expect if one replaces the rubber v-blocks of the vertical knife edge bearing with something more sensible (many 3rd party options exist: plastic, brass, quartz) and lock out the wobbly rear section of the arm that holds the counterweight. Apparently this can be done with some dental floss and superglue! It will afterwards allegedly beat a Basik LVX. It is very high mass at about 23g so that limits ones cart choice a little - I'd be interested to hear what a DL-103 did in there. The odd looking L70 arm is actually rather good, I've been surprised by mine.

Tony.
 
The GL69/72 (there's a Sony version too) weren't bad either.

A re-blocked standard sprung plinth GL75, with K9 *and original mat* and new output leads saw off a Linn Axis/Basik Plus/K9 I remember and some of the favourite records of my lifetime were first heard on a GL75 with Shure M75-EJ...

A damn fine old warhorse, although I'd rather try a DL110 than a 103, but that's because I'm biassed against low resolution conical styli.
 
DSJR said:
I remember and some of the favourite records of my lifetime were first heard on a GL75 with Shure M75-EJ...
Click to expand...

My first deck! Mine was in this plinth:

2hd8sq0.jpg


Which I filled up with plasticine, lead shot & Blu-Tac! I have fond memories of that deck, I owned it for the whole 'new-wave' period of 78-81 or so and it introduced me to many of my favourite records; Joy Division, ACR, Echo And The Bunnymen, Magazine, Teardrop Explodes, The Fall etc etc.

Tony.
 
The 64,000 dollar question then is not "is it good given a bit of upgrading?" because it is, but "Is it a good place to start when I can get a Thorens 125/150 for loose change and use that?"

I think the Thorens sound better out of the box, after that it's plinth, arm, and the jury is out which one would shade it. Equally, is a Garrard 401 with fewer mods still better than a G75 with money spent? Aaargh....:)
 
The 301 / 401 is a lot more expensive, the going rate seems to be 350+ quid for a 401 and up to twice that for a really good 301. The plinth for a Garrard costs about the same as a Lenco - you can get a L75 for 50-80 quid and a L70, 88 or 99 for a little more, so the Lenco is certainly a cheaper option.

The Thorens are a very different thing IMO, I suspect they'll win against a stock Lenco on quietness and possibly detail, but loose out on pitch and directness. I'd like to hear a 125 again, I last heard one in about 1977 aged about 14!

If you want to run a completely stock Lenco I'd try and find a L70 - the arm is better than the 75 as it has good ball races in each plane, it is also lower mass than it looks as it is spring balanced, not weighted. It has it's irritations as the headshel cartridge screw mounts are fixed, so alignment is only right with Pickering, Stanton, Shure etc (I'm running a Pickering XV-15 / 625Ein mine), but it is a surprisingly capable deck. I'm sure a 75 is too with fixed V-blocks and the wobbliness of the rear arm fixed, i.e. any 75 will take some work to get running.

Tony.
 
£350 for a 401 these days?:eek: I have 3, none cost me more than £80, then again they came my way 10 years ago. I'll be selling one or two in a bit to finance the Uberdeck.:)

I've still got to take some photes of the Th 125 I'm selling on here and send them to the prospective buyer to see if he wants it. I think they are a hifi bargain at the mo, and the 150 too still goes for loose change. The 160 and especially the 165 was a step backwards after this.
 
I know this is a really lame excuse for resurrecting a thread such as this but, Tony L, if you're reading, there was a turntable featured in a scene from last night's edition of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (as shown on Five) and I could have sworn it looked just like one of those Lenco decks you've got!
 
Tony L said:
I have fond memories of that deck, I owned it for the whole 'new-wave' period of 78-81 or so and it introduced me to many of my favourite records; Joy Division, ACR, Echo And The Bunnymen, Magazine, Teardrop Explodes, The Fall etc etc.
Click to expand...

I listened to exactly the same records at that period on my old GL78! Ortofon FF15EMkII, Sansui 310 Reciever, Wharfedale Shelton XP2 Speakers. Ahhh the memories!
 
Im not old enough to have listened back then but I have some virgin JD going about and have been offered for nothing a Lenco, though not sure of what vintage. Should I go for it ;)
 
What you need to do is to get the thing, tinker about with it for a bit, then bung it safely in the loft for a few years before coming back here and saying "it all works, i just don't have time so first tenner...";)
 
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