audio-talk

Since Dave's Garrard is the proverbial immovable object, we decided we ought to have a travelling deck we could use to show off his next builds. We'd planned on a Lenco L75, but were having a hard time getting one that fit the budget. We did, however, find a GL72 in allegedly "barely played" condition. After some research, Dave said that opinions varied but that it seemed that the lighter platter wasn't as big a deal as he'd expected and that rumor has it the tone arm on the 72 is actually a little better than the 75. We got it for a price we liked and picked it up yesterday.

While cosmetically it's not quite as mint as we'd hoped, it's pretty close and very clean. Mechanically it seems to be in perfect working order.







We're talking to cressy about a plinth, but we plan to keep this one in as original condition as possible, unlike the Garrard. Think of the Garrard as the Trump deck: Yuge, luxurious, expensive, and "the greatest"; the Lenco will be the Bernie: a bit lightweight and slightly dishevelled, but unsullied by capitalism and greed.

In vaguely related news, Dave just picked up a job lot of 50 random 78s for me on eBay for a fiver. Now we just need that plinth and a sapphire stylus...

Wow....

....Should have bought a decent TT.

Techie 1210 Irene.

Idler drive Lencos are sh*t hot when sorted Jammy.
Mock ye not.

Faffing's for fools.........

Ah yes....there's an awful lot of faffing goes on here.
Us audio simpletons can't resist a faff.

We even faffed about, writing a half finished song about faffing last year.
It goes to the tune of :
"When I'm Cleaning Windows" by the great George Formby.



"Now, I like valve amp building,
And other kinds of stuff.
Some of them they turn out nice,
..and some of them are ruff!"

There's plate chokes, grid chokes, 2A3s,
Forty-fives, three 'undred Bs
Tetrodes, pentodes, DHPs
When I'm building valve amps!

Now valve amps are addictive
And it's very 'ard to stop.
I'll crank that blinkin' Beeplus
Until all the caps go pop YEY!

Anodes, cathodes, grids and grounds,
Silver coils, a thousand pounds,
Sparks and disconcerting sounds,
When i'm building valve amps.


Now seven 'undred fifty quid
Bought me a PX4.
But please don't tell the missus
Or she'll knock me through the floor!

Now for the wife, life's gettin' hard,
Front room looks like Steptoe's yard.
She's confiscated my bank card,
To stop me building valve amps.

Middle eight inst.......

A neighbour knocked upon my door
Said turn it down cant take no more
The watts it puts out, only four
When I'm building valve amps!

Cuttin' drillin' bleedin' swearing,
Sometimes it can be quite wearing,
Spanner slip me nostrils flaring,
When I'm building valve amps

Now power amps take such an age,
It's gettin' on me wick,
If next time its a phono stage,
I'm best off asking Nick.


And so-on

Class...Faff on.

Cressy Snr wrote:"Now, I like valve amp building,
And other kinds of stuff.
Some of them they turn out nice,
..and some of them are ruff!"
And so-on

***WILD APPLAUSE***

When I saw the pressed steel platter I thought - no way is that going to run as true as the spun aluminium platter on the L75. Wrong! I don't know how they did it but there is zero detectable wobble on that platter, it runs perfectly true. I've had previous experience of two modern expensive "high end" belt drives that ran less true than that. Brilliantly simple underneath - compare and contrast with the mess of levers and cams underneath the Garrard. Gotta love Swiss engineering.

"Cressy Snr wrote:
"Now, I like valve amp building,
And other kinds of stuff.
Some of them they turn out nice,
..and some of them are ruff!"
And so-on

No he didn't, I did! Thats my 'bit'.... I'm starting leegull proceedings (n'all that) etc etc etc

PS. He did write all the rest of it though!

I have informed Dave that since we will now have a turntable to demo them on, he has a deadline of the next Owston meet to complete the Dieselpunk Preamp of Doom and the Beast with Two Backs. But I have to finish my guitar amp by then too, so it's fair, right?

I have been doing something with it, almost there. It needs a hole for the iec socket and 2 for the output jacks putting on the rear, a coat of paint tomorrow and then veneering. I skimmed the faces to make sure they are completely flat before veneering. A trick from a paint shop Ive used. They skim an entire car with body filler and sand it back before paint so that any imperfections in the metal work are sorted and the paint is lovely and flat. Works the same in this case, veneer will cover imperfections in the substrate, but sometimes they can be seen of you look along the faces as a slight wave is visible. Especially in these plinths as the faces are the cut edges. We dont want that



Some more sanding and it will be good to go for paint and veneer

As requested the plinth is sized almost the same size as the deck plate, there is a 3/8" reveal from the deck plate to the edge to keep it compact, and a set of 3/4" brass spiked feet



Got more mass into the plinth by making it thicker than usual at 84mm, total height to the top of the platter is 146mm. Pulled the deck apart and it was pristine in terms of the mechanics, not a mark on them

if you wanted to step up the performance despite the looks, I think the GL75/78 platter will fit right on. far heavier and better 'technical' performance I think.

Great old decks these and yours has the bias adjuster not there on the GL69. Sony did a version with tarted up headshell and a green-stylus Goldring G850 I remember. The arm should take some good modern cartridges as long as the V blocks in the arm bearings are ok.

Nope the 75 platter wont fit, just tried it. It has a larger bearing diameter and length. The 75 bearing would have to have the mounting holes reamed bigger to fit as the mounting flange is different and the centre hole made larger aswell.
The 72 platter appears to have been trued on a lathe given the spiral cut into the side surface, and the tooling marks in it. the 69 platter was flat iirc so was probably a simple pressing wheras the 72 platter has had more attention paid to it. Tbh i have seen a couple of 75 platters that are not remotely true. This one is much better than the one on my converted 75

Oh wow just seen this. Thanks Ant - that looks great!

Irene Idler wrote: ↑Sat Feb 04, 2017 11:51 am I have informed Dave that since we will now have a turntable to demo them on, he has a deadline of the next Owston meet to complete the Dieselpunk Preamp of Doom and the Beast with Two Backs. But I have to finish my guitar amp by then too, so it's fair, right?

June.

Only 3 months away...