Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

Just a quickie, just supercharged an original Lenco tonearm to fantastic results! I used ultra-thin solid core internal wiring (the best tonearm wire methinks) soldered directly to Petra (Music Boy) interconnects (still my fave), replaced the original rubber V-blocks for the knife-edge bearings with brass ones sourced from Sander (can be contacted via Lenco Lovers), and drilled out the connecting end, drilled out a 'real' headshell and epoxied the thing in place, basically a repeat of what I had done way back in '93 or so when I first discovered the Lencos. But THAT Lenco was not Direct Coupled to a plinth and mounted with a Reinderspeter top-plate, and now the result is fantastic. How fantastic? Haven't had time to do comparisons yet, but sounds very clean, detailed, dynamic and with excellent tight bass with the Denon DL-103"E" (phonophono in Berlin).

I've now got the Reinderspeter Lenco sitting next to an Ultra Garrard, the Garrard having both the Kokomo bearing upgrade AND a Loricraft power supply, as well as being mounted in a truly gigantic plinth (Ultra), for ultimate refinement and the usual Idler POWER and SLAM. Not only that, while the Super Lenco tonearm sits on the Reinderspeter Lenco, the 12" Cherry tonearm (available here on Audiogon for $200) is also sounding excellent on the Ultra Garrard (it being mounted with the famed Empire 10PE MM, smokin'!). So it's the battle of the budget wonders (the Lenco tonearm much better-built than the cherry, but it's the sound that counts) on two Ultra-'Table Contenders!!

Also got myself an NOS Dynavector Karat Ruby, a superb MC, only just mounted but already sounding excellent.

Be back with further reporting and photos later. Have fun all!!

Jean, FYI, Raul Iregas had an SP10 mk II in a marble plinth and did not like the results. He "reverted" thereafter to a simple and not very heavy wood plinth (maybe made of Baltic Birch), and that is what he uses with the SP10. Two qualifiers are: (1) This was a Technics SP10, not a Lenco. The optimal plinth for a direct drive may be different from that for an idler, and (2) we don't know much about Raul's marble plinth except he did state that it was very heavy (100lbs?). Perhaps Raul would care to comment.

I've often wondered what is the point of the ping test in selecting materials for audio use? It seems to me that a good shelf or plinth material should be a material that is able to dissipate the vibrational energy put into it, as heat. There is a large body of knowledge in materials science as regards the ability of energy to pass from one material to another. (Some is reflected back and some is absorbed at each interface. When the energy pulse reaches the far boundary of the absorbing material, some of it is reflected back again toward the admitting surface.) So the question is how does the plinth or shelf material mate with the metal chassis of the turntable and then from there what happens to the energy that does get into the plinth. You could have the deadest substance on the planet, but if most of the energy from the tt chassis is reflected back at the interface OR if the mating is suboptimal in any way, the plinth is worthless. Maybe that's why marble failed in Raul's experiment. As for me, I am fairly satisfied that undamped granite sucks as shelf material, for another example. I would definitely not consider granite for a plinth.

That's why I went with Corian some years ago. Good looking, not too bad to work with, fairly easily shaped, very dead and dense with good mass.

Enjoy,
Bob

so does anyone know when Jean is returning from Greece?

He'll be back in a little over a week, or so he told me today (11/4). Dave