Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II


“For those who want the moon but can't afford it or those who can afford it but like to have fun and work with their hands, I'm willing to give out a recipe for a true high-end 'table which is easy to do, and fun to make as sky's the limit on design/creativity! The cost of materials, including 'table, is roughly $200 (depending, more or less), and add to that a Rega tonearm. The results are astonishing. I'll even tell/show you how to make chipboard look like marble and fool and impress all your friends. If there's interest I'll get on with this project, if not, I'll just continue making them in my basement. The next one I make will have a Corian top and have a zebra stripe pattern! Fun! Any takers?”

The Lead in “Da Thread” as posted by Johnnantais - 2-01-04

Let the saga continue. Sail on, oh ships of Lenco!
mario_b
Hi Mike, the proof that it was never hyperbole is here!! And I always wanted to know what the Lenco as-is could do, Direct Coupling and all that leaving the machine itself untouched, more in the way of "excavating" the Mighty Lenco's capabilities, like excavating a lost city from a mound of rubbish, than modification. Once one interferes with/replaces the original machine's parts, then one loses sight of what it could do all along, of the context.

So, further developments: the owner of the SME 30 now also concedes the Lenco superiority in the bass, though there are now newer mitigating circumstances even here. In removing the loading resistors from the phono stage and so going to a 47K loading for the Concerto, he found that both machines improved vastly (as per Harry Pearson's preference for loading ALL MCs at 47K), so now we have a whole new shootout! I'll find out more tomorrow when I go in for more auditioning myself.

Peter's top-plate will be Direct Coupled to the usual Russian birch-ply/MDF recipe, so I will hear exactly what it brings to the party. THEN I will slowly replace parts with improved bearing kits and so on and climb the Idler Ladder and report in detail. As written, I hope to finish the Reinderspeter top-plate Lenco in time to match it against the SME 30 as well.

A buddy of mine who had my Electro-Voice speakers in his system can no longer live with current speakers, and is preeparing to buy a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls. Hooray for Progress ;-)!!! Have fun all.
Jean and Rick,
Thanks for allowing us to hear about your findings. I agree that the Lenco is superb where musicality thrives- the midrange. Most likely due to stability of speed. Of course, the highs and lower frequencies are powerful, defined and clear.
The Denon 103s have impressed me, but now I find that the Dynavector 17D III has opened up the sounstage- bloom and depth- to another level.
The 17D is an excellent cart.
Have a great Summer ya'll!
I had never heard that HP recommends 47K but I have always wondered about folks that say that such and such a cartridge sounds better loaded at 50 ohms or 100 ohms. They always sound better to me at 47K - I even built a fancy resistor switching scheme into my preamp but after the first few tries, I never used it again. It makes me wonder if the loading down an MC is something that works in bright (SS) systems.

Mike
Hi Jean,
The shoot-out sounds great. It'll certainly be interesting if and when Peter's plate enters the fray. But getting back to our stock top plates....
Can you tell us a little more about the marine grade glass epoxy that you’re using on the underside of the top plate? Is a fast or slow cure? I take it that you invert the top plate; level it, then fill it “to the rim”. Obviously, you’ve got “dikes” of some sort to prevent the resin from flowing to “no go” areas like the idler/speed control assembly. Do you use a putty for this. Any brand names?
All best,
Mario