Hi Raul, you're right, seeing this thrread is like a starving man stumbling out of the desert and discovering a buffet! As to the system capablities/resolution of each of those testers, a better source should sound better regardless of the system, be it NAD or Audio Research: remember "garbage in garbage out", source first? And don't make the classic mistake of dismissing those who attempt the experiment as not serious because idler-wheels and the Lencos have not been stamped with the Audiophile Stamp of Approval, participants range from the extreme high-end to lower high-end, all are evidently audiophiles with at the very least decent systems, or they would not even be interested. But to allay your fears, the very first e-mail I received on the Lenco project in the beginning was a fellow asking me if he should put his Triplanar tonearm on in in his Jadis/Wilson Audio system. As to the quote you featured, since the Walker Proscenium Gold Signature is, or should be, at the very top of the heap in every respect bar none, then the fact the Lenco brought delight and surprise speaks volumes.
I know you respect and like the Acoustic Signature Final Tool, and so I will quote from a letter sent me from a fellow who mounted a Decca International re-wired and mounted with a Grado Platinum: "I have been listening contently to the Lenco. Sweet. I am hearing things in the grooves that I never heard before. No joke. And the things I`m hearing, that I could only hear before with the Ruby 2 and the Signature Final Tool turntable, SME 309 arm is much more musical. Not as dry, and uninvolving as the $6000.00 setup was. You have read all this stuff before on the threads I`m sure. I will be adding my two cents worth when I get a chance to sit still for a bit....Well, that PRaT is starting to click in my brain. I was out of tune listening to music that was out of PRaT. Yea, now it is making sense. I don`t know how it can sound much better using a heavier plinth, but it will be interesting to find out. I used to have the MC cartridge Micro Benz Ruby 2. For the money it should sound better then the Grado, but it does not. It may have had more detail, or whatever, but I was not enjoying the music as much as I do now. It was dry, bland, compressed, and homogenized. I don`t know if I want to try the Denon 103 for fear I will lose something that I have now in the MM. I just listened to a great recording in Jazz and one in Classical, and they of course sound even more enjoyable then before Lenco was discovered...But how can an old turntable using an old tonearm using a $300.00 cartridge, compete with the big boys. I did listen though and was not closed minded, I thought maybe this Jean is really on to something, and did not pooh pooh you like some may do. There loss and our gain. Well of course now I hear it with my ears. You don`t need to spend bunches of money to have great sound from vinyl. Or for that matter spend more and have less...I want to discover something new in the music that was hidden in the grooves of those records" and so on. Whatever the system, you'll agree that if he was running a Final Tool/SME 309/Ruby 2 it must have been up mthere in Audiophile Cred Land. A fellow switched his Moerch/Allaerts from his Teres/Cocobolo 245/lead in his system and reported the following: "Lenco, unequivocally. listening to mine for the first time tonight, with only a rough setup. have owned an LP-12 and a Teres, and a restored/modified with heavy plinth Lenco L75 leaves them in the dust! soooooooo much more money for LPs. wade into the jean nantais thread and have at it--you won't regret it for a second once you hear what it can do. makes the belt vs. direct drive argument moot." This takes care of the diference-in-equipment thing.
I'm honestly trying to expose the truth of this matter, and the more people participate, the more solid and incontrovertible the evidence will be. As I wrote, the people who spent their hard-earned cash on the various high-end 'tables listed had every reason to dismiss the Lenco out of hand and protect the reputation of the 'tables they sank their money/egos into, but instead reported, to a man, the superiority of the Lenco, except in the case where the Lenco was used solely with budget equipment in a state-of-the-art system, and even he was surprised. And you're right, the neutral Koetsu being designed on an idler-wheel drive explains the colourations, which are entirely due to the coloured belt-drives they are then played on ;-)! Not sure what you're saying means, but feel free to join in the fun, as you always say, actual hands-on experience is the ONLY arbiter in the end, theory and hearsay has no place in this discussion, this is the heart of empirical science, and the foundation of Western civilization. And don't worry raul, I always enjoy the music...because I use a Lenco! I'll eventually be taveling down Mexico-way to explore the various Aztec and Maya remains, as I do a fair bit of research on this subject for a project of mine researching the role/effect of assumption and prejudice in Western scholarship and science (which explains a lot, eh?). I will be then enjoying that fabulous Mexican music live!
