advertisement


Lenco L-75 and 230 volts

PaulMB

PaulMB

pfm Member
I know there are some Lenco resurrectors out there, including Our Leader, so was wondering if anyone knows if the L-75 motor can be connected up for 230 or 240 volts. The plate on the motor itself only gives options for 110 or 220, but since many of these were sold in the UK as either Lenco or Goldring, I thought there just might be a 230-240 option. Probably not critical, and its now running happily on today's 230 here in Italy.
 
I MUST get a scan of the 1968 HiFi Sound turntable group-test on all our favourite vintage decks (401, TD124, G99 and TTS3000 - the Sony won due to better measured spec). It was suggested that the Lenco motor vibrated less with a resistor inline (25 Ohm 10W IIRC). I recommended similar here before and someone came back saying the sonics suffered, although I didn't hear a degradation myself. The only thing I noticed was the "kick" on startup was reduced, the inertia of the platter maintaining speed stability once running with a sub 2g tracking cartridge for me at any rate..
 
You'll find voltage in Europe generally ranges between 220 - 230v, so yours will work fine and needs no other option.

In fact, ENEL quotes 220v as the standard.
 
I guess moving a Lenco from a 220v area to a 240v area simply means a little tweak of the speed selector knob retaining saddles with a strobe. The thing is perfectly designed to cope with such variations as the vari-speed capability is so great. The other idler decks like the 124 and Garrards only have a couple of percent available on the fine speed adjust knob so need more precise voltage alignment.
 
Technically the UK is now 230v to conform to the European standard. In practice, all they did was to play with the tolerances - now + or - 10%.
 
Hi,

Its a synchronous motor so its speed depends on the line frequency not the voltage.

Pete
 
Thanks everyone for the information, and for the link to the Lenco Heaven wiring article. I spent a good while on LH trying to find some information on the motor and did not find this article, but found a lot of other stuff instead. Sometimes the layout of LH is a bit mysterious, or maybe I don't know how to navigate it..

Yes, the motor speed is kept constant by the 50 cycle alternating current, so theoretically should not vary at all with voltage.

I believe that ENEL used to quote 220, but for the past 20-odd years has quoted 230 as the standard voltage. I've measured it many times and, amazingly, it has always been very close to that, between 226 and 232, more or less.

I played a few records on it yesterday, with the original horrible arm and the M75 cartridge that came with it, but with a new tip from the local electronics shop. (Which of course cost more than the deck and the M75 together.)
It sounds great! Really not that much difference with my TD126 with SME arm and M95 cart.!

I wonder what the 126 would sound like if I blocked the suspension completely rigid. Anyone done this?
 
After Dom Harper re-plinthed, re-bearinged, re-armed and generally refurbished myGL75, the speed was all over the place when delivered here in France (frequency difference?), but a little fiddling with a strobe & a screwdriver à la Tony L soon put all to rights.

After all:

Uncle George and Auntie Mabel
Fainted at the breakfast table.
This should be sufficient warning
Not to do it in the morning.
But Ovaltine soon put them right
And now they do it day and night!

Simple;)

Julian
 
Newboy said:
After Dom Harper re-plinthed, re-bearinged, re-armed and generally refurbished myGL75, the speed was all over the place when delivered here in France (frequency difference?), but a little fiddling with a strobe & a screwdriver à la Tony L soon put all to rights.
Click to expand...
Frequency is 50Hz in France.
 
OK, Avole, maybe I was cruel in calling it "horrible," but its not up to the engineering standards of the rest of the machine. I've made a pair of new V-blocks myself, from pieces of 5mm square rod of perspex, and I've cleaned and registered the horizontal ball races. It sounds pretty OK, I admit. But I'm thinking of fitting an old SME (I'd have to file out the mounting hole backwards by about 10mm) or an old Ortofon. I know everybody says a Rega works well, but I think it looks a bit boring on an L75.
My idler wheel is fine. In fact I've stripped everything, cleaned, greased and oiled (new oil filter, checked tyre pressures, etc.) and it all looks very new. The old grease was still a good brown colour and present in quantity, no play in the main bearing. No rust or anything. Pleasantly surprised because when I bought it it looked a bit tatty, with heavy metal stickers on the plinth and felt-tip pen doodles on the top plate.

Regarding the speed problem with Newboy's turntable, I'd think it more likely that it got bumped and shaken in transit, unless it was an American export made for 60Hz. If it was a 60Hz model I doubt that a few minutes with a screwdriver would have fixed it.
 
Dear Avole, may I beg you to accept my most humble apologies?

There, that's better now, isn't it?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top