Lenco L75

MeanandGreen

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I've got my hands on a Lenco form my parents loft. It was buried beneath a stack of Betamax VCRs, I've told my Dad that's just criminal!

Anyway it's mine now, it cosmetically looks pretty good it's all there including the smoked lid which despite the VCR stackage is in good condition. The deck has been up there for 22 years and it's history unknown prior to that as my Dad was given it years ago as a job lot with a Pioneer SX-440 receiver which I'm yet to find amongst his never ending Alidns cave!

I'm going to replace the V blocks as the tone arm has way too much floppage going on. Also new cart and stylus will be on the list. Any suggestions for the latter?

I bought a Pro Ject Elemental recently as an introduction to vinyl. It was for a second system and despite intial reservations with the format, I've come to appreciate it's charm with original releases. So I'm going to keep the Pro Ject in my living room and use the Lenco in my computer room/office.

I'm also going to completely re wire the mains and RCA cables as they look well past their best!
 

MeanandGreen

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drummerman said:
Looks like you're in the fold now :)

Fly the flag

Yep it looks that way :)

The more vinyl I'm getting my hands on the more I'm appreciating it. The thoughts of taking the Pro Ject out of my main system and relegating the format solely to my office room doesn't seem to be making sence anymore. *pardon*
 

MajorFubar

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Fine choice. There's a firm out there (forgotten who) selling refurbed GL75s in a fancy plinth with decent new arms for a price well into four figures. The arm and the headshell were always the only weak links. They're very heavy by modern standards (have you felt the mass of the counterweight!) which I understand can make pairing them with some modern cartridges a bit tricky, and not exactly up to the build-quality of the rest of the deck imo. But they're by no means awful. Back in the day these decks were commonly paired with Goldring G800, G800E (same body with an eliptical stylus) or G850 cartridges. I wouldn't be at all surprised if many a GL75 hosted a Shure M97 as well (famously had the little brush at the front). A modern variant of this cart is still available for £80.
 

MeanandGreen

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MajorFubar said:
Fine choice. There's a firm out there (forgotten who) selling refurbed GL75s in a fancy plinth with decent new arms for a price well into four figures. The arm and the headshell were always the only weak links. They're very heavy by modern standards (have you felt the mass of the counterweight!) which I understand can make pairing them with some modern cartridges a bit tricky, and not exactly up to the build-quality of the rest of the deck imo. But they're by no means awful. Back in the day these decks were commonly paired with Goldring G800, G800E (same body with an eliptical stylus) or G850 cartridges. I wouldn't be at all surprised if many a GL75 hosted a Shure M97 as well (famously had the little brush at the front). A modern variant of this cart is still available for £80.

Thanks for the info!

I know this deck has a Shure cart on it, dunno which model but I'm guessing it's probably the original one. I have discovered that the Lenco TT's seem to have a bit of a following and are often modified. All I aim to do is put a good cart and stylus on it for stereo 33 and 45 playback and replace anything else that needs replacing. I haven't felt the counterweight as of yet. I'm waiting until I buy all of the parts I need before taking any of it apart and I'll be following the guides on Lenco Heaven for dissembling and reassembling :)

Perhaps I will change the tone arm at some point, but that's something for latter I think...

I've just fixed my old NAD amp which is now the heart of my second system and I'm waiting on a faulty Pioneer PDR-609 CD recorder arriving which is at the very least going to serve as a DAC for my iMac. If I manage to fix it it'll be a CD source and recording device for the second system too.

I've quite a few audio projects going on at the moment *wacko*
 

MajorFubar

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MajorFubar said:
There's a firm out there (forgotten who) selling refurbed GL75s in a fancy plinth with decent new arms for a price well into four figures.

ifor said:
Check out Inspire HiFi

Bingo. That was them. £2,170 for a 're-engineered' GL75 without arm or cart in a posh (but absolutely bloody gorgeous) plinth
 

MeanandGreen

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Yeah there are some pretty fancy Lencos out there! I had no idea these Lencos were so well thought of until very recently. Given their age it seems that many are still around, can't be many other electrical items from that era still going so strong and are still comparable/better than today's stuff!
 

MajorFubar

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MeanandGreen said:
Given their age it seems that many are still around, can't be many other electrical items from that era still going so strong and are still comparable/better than today's stuff!

Comparatively there are many HiFis and audio components from the 60s-early 80s still around and functional. I can't help sounding like my dad, but it's true: older stuff was designed to last. New stuff is designed to either break within 5 years or to be technically obsolete within the same. Such as my five year old Panasonic TV which was a smart TV when it was purchased, but now it's a dumb TV, because within the past year the online server it logged onto to provide users with its interactive features has been shut down, and there are purposefully no firmware updates available to remedy this.
 

ifor

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MajorFubar said:
MeanandGreen said:
Given their age it seems that many are still around, can't be many other electrical items from that era still going so strong and are still comparable/better than today's stuff!

Comparatively there are many HiFis and audio components from the 60s-early 80s still around and functional. I can't help sounding like my dad, but it's true: older stuff was designed to last. New stuff is designed to either break within 5 years or to be technically obsolete within the same. Such as my five year old Panasonic TV which was a smart TV when it was purchased, but now it's a dumb TV, because within the past year the online server it logged onto to provide users with its interactive features has been shut down, and there are purposefully no firmware updates available to remedy this.

You should be able to go to the retailer and claim a full refund under the sales of good act. This, I believe, holds true for anything that fails within six years.

The law states that a consumer can approach a retailer with a claim about a good they have purchased for up to six years from the date of sale (or five years after the discovery of the problem in Scotland). This does not mean that every good sold has to last six years; it is simply the legal cut off point for bringing a contractual claim. A consumer cannot hold a retailer responsible for fair ‘wear and tear’.

However, if a good has an inherent fault, the retailer cannot evade responsibility by simply referring the consumer to a manufacturer’s guarantee. A guarantee does not replace or limit a customer’s statutory rights. Consumers are entitled to rely on the remedies available to them under sale of goods legislation rather than their rights under a guarantee if they wish.
 

MajorFubar

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Manufacturers know that with many consumer items subject to inevitable wear and tear they have you by the short and curlies. The first fully electronic washing machine in the family was a Hotpoint my mum bought in 1976. With just a couple of belt-changes it was still going strong when they moved out of the house in 1991. In comparison, Mrs Fubar and I are on our 4th machine in 18 years.
 

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