Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

Hi all: Up here I’ve been having adventures chasing the Kundalini Effect across a variety of components, thanks for the moment to the Lenco/SME V/Denon DL-103 matching. Now I realize the SME V is a pricey component, so for the foreseeable while, after I return the SME to its rightful owner, I will see if I can extract the same effect from my Rega tonearm (only re-wired, no other tweaks) with the Denon with the addition of after-market tweaks and Twl’s lateral weights, or from some other tonearm/cartridge combo (the Grados likely have the potential too, already come very close).

I’ve been playing with the Glass Epoxy Mod too, and learned in the process just how much like a violin the Lenco is!!: tighten the bolts – either the woodscrews used for direct coupling or the bolts which insert in the threaded insets on the Lenco top-plate – and the sound hardens and bass and PraT go away, loosen so it’s snug and it re-appears. And I would say the Lenco threaded bolts are even more critical than the direct coupling screws, though it goes without saying that you must be very careful not to distort the top-plate by too much pressure on the woodscrews. Get it right and everything comes into focus, and the Glass Mod is the most natural-sounding iteration of the Lenco I’ve heard so far, preserving the Mighty dynamics and transient speed, but with an added Grado-like richness (NATURAL richness music actually has), and with a Grado-like sense of ebullient drive and rhythm and bass (any wonder I love the Grados?!?), and all the improvements in detail-retrieval and soundstage.

Now, I had been using the Sony 3130F/AR combo to test for the Kundalini Effect, as these do it better than any speaker I’ve heard so far, except for the Athenas. Now the ARs were designed with tube amps in mind, and so don’t sound good (especially in the bass) with modern SS amps due to their elevated damping factor. Older SS amps had very low damping factor, and consequently extract much better/more exciting bass from the ARs. Henry Kloss, who worked on these speakers (as well as Vilchur and others) recommended wiring resistors in series with the speaker cables to emulate a tube amp, I’ll have to look this up for more details.

Which brings me to the 100-watt solid-state Class AB amp I had written about way back, built by a follower of Da Thread from its beginning, which I had heard and likened to a 100-watt Class A SET in sound. Well, I finally went and picked it up and it is everything I had hoped it would be and more. Actually, when I hooked it up to my ARs, the Kundalini Effect went away, but in its stead I was left with a HUGE walk-through soundstage, incredible and filigree dainty detail, endless and perfect high frequencies which appear rolled-off but aren't, being due to the UTTER and TOTAL absence of any grain or distortions. Makes my little Sony amp sound quite barbaric in fact. But. The Kundalini Effect is gone, those fascinating wrecking-ball slamming percussion instruments are gone, that Super Energy is gone, because the 100-watt heavy monster (three times the size and weight of my little Sony amp), sounds just like a very loud 3-watt single-ended tube amp, all Supreme Refinement (how does he do it?!?), Ultra Detail with HUGE space between all the clearly audible instruments. WHAT transparency. Sitting there, it struck me that this amp needed my easy-to-drive perfect-midrange-to-high-frequency ESS speakers, so in they went.

NOW we are talking PERFECTION. The detail is absolutely astounding (and this from my humble Denon DL-103"E", but the ESS are incredible in this sense...as well), the energy and speed is back, the bass fast and slamming, the image incredible and HUGE and yet at the same time specific, and all without any audible distortions at all, just like reviewspeak: it offers a clear window (and I mean CLEAR, nothing there; just the grooves, then the sound in the room with nothing in-between) onto the event. I have never heard anything like it. And the Kundalini Effect is back, but with an added very beguilingly beautiful sound from those fantastic delicate/dynamic Heil tweeter/midranges, it will be my Reference System to amaze and astound. Many of my older Lenco converts became converts when they heard my Lenco played through the ESS back in the old home days. They STILL talk about that experience. But they ain't heard nuthin' yet.

Now this is important: I got the Kundalini Effect (in addition to the tingle/hair-raising effect one only too rarely gets in high-end audio, this is the experience of actual intense physical shivers, which I have seen with my own eyes affect others too) from both the Sony/AR combo and from the Pierre Amp/ESS combo, which means it is independently attributable specifically to the Lenco/SME V/Denon combo, and not some freak of synergy having to do solely with the totality of my system. Strike another blow for the Mighty Lenco, but also for the Denon DL-103 (and variants), which truly does have something unique to it and it alone (you don't see cult followings of the Denon DL-304, or DL-S1, do you?): a musical INTENSITY which no other moving-coil can match (unless it is a direct-scanning type, I may find out some day), even remotely. I hook up the superb Koetsu Rosewood, and though the sound improves in every audiophile sense (detail, speed, bass, highs, imaging), the Kundalini Effect goes away, like hitting the OFF switch (this doesn't mean the tingle factor/hair-raising experience is gone, it remains and is still musically-intense). Re-inserting the Denon brings back the effect immediately, like hitting the ON switch. The Denon has more PLUCK in its pluck (string-plucks LEAPING out with HEFT), and more SLAM in its slam, hitting like a heavyweight, with style, like Ali, vs every other MC's Sugar Ray Leonard impression. Now not everyone prefers the Denon to the Koetsu: some prefer the Koetsu's greater audiophile abilities. But, significantly, among those who prefer the Denon is a drummer. This highlights what is going on: those who are more sensitive to timing and rhythm prefer the Denon; those who are less sensitive to this prefer the Koetsu, which goes some ways to explaining the arguments over which equipment is better, simple sensitivity (or lack thereof) to various musical issues. I believe, anyway, that prolonged exposure to the Lencos and other large idler-wheel drives leads to greater and greater sensitivity to PRaT and gestalt/coherence.

I have to say more about the image from Pierre's amp. I didn't know my records sounded anything like this!!!! I have a whole new record collection!!! Now this a "regular" class AB stereo amp, one transformer, two channels, solid state. But I have NEVER heard imaging like this, and I have owned a variety of tube monoblocks in my time, which excelled at imaging. Not only is the soundstage HUGE and walk-through-and-around, but this is also due to the fact that all the musicians and instruments are their actual size: here you have a human with a human-sized head, and WAY over there behind and to the right is a regular-sized guitar, and off to the left about twenty feet down some small percussion instrument doing its thing. This is tied to the enormous detail (and did I mention perfect and with no distortions whatsoever?...I mean, is this even possible?!?), which is so audible because of the incredible transparency (there's no amp there!!!). In fact, the sound is SO PERFECT, the detail presented with SUCH a total lack of strain (100-watt single-ended tube amp-like) that I think it's a coloration. Then again maybe not. I don't know what to think, but I know this: I have been taking out many of my albums to learn just exactly what's on them!!!

Now this amp isn’t available commercially (but perhaps, if you ask nice, you might get Pierre to make you one, that’s his decision) but I write about it to highlight an aspect of this hobby of ours and commercially-available products. To wit, this just goes to show you amps too are like instruments: Pierre took a normal Class AB circuit, and tuned it by the judicious application of this resistor here and that capacitor there, even listening to different solders, and by designing the circuit boards for maximal musicality (issues of capacitance, inductance and noise in the design) and by using a frame (C-core I believe) transformer, which he says sounds much better than toroidals. I mean, who does this in commercially-avaliable products? They come up with a good circuit design with good components and good sound, and then wreck it by either downgrading the quality of the components to increase profit, or by inserting audiophile-darling caps and resistors without testing for their actual effect (i.e. a gain in detail at the expense of musicality/gestalt/magic). I've heard Pierre's other designs (true dual monos and some monoblocks), which were actually even more detailed with better imaging and firmer bass. But they didn't have this smooth silky vice-free/SET-like sound (sounding more typically solid-state) and sense of illimitable dynamics (clear skies above, no hardening or distortions) and gestalt this amp has. And Pierre was entirely aware of this, and already knew in advance from my writings that I would prefer the 100-watt SET-mimicker. I'll have to get more details from him, but the idea is, that what is considered a pretty low circuit on the Totem Pole (Class AB solid-state vs tubes and Class A) can be turned into a silk purse by doing it right. I’ll say more on this as I know more, but for the moment, my Giant Direct Coupled Glass-Reinforced Lenco (getting long ;-))/ARC SP-8/Pierre Amp/ESS AMT4 is producing ludicrously good sound up here (no one hears this unaffected, some even literally shake in their seats!), and I can’t wait to hear what my Grado sounds like on this rig!!

Hi again Peter, it's good to know your new plate will incorporate speed changes, which makes it all the tastier!! For the moment, I'm off to try to extract the Kundalini Effect from other combos, starting with my beloved Grado Woody, and of course my Decca! Have fun all!

Hi jean,
interesting adventures you are having!
Regarding my new topplate quite a discussion has developed at the Lencolovers forum. Please have a look, I am interested in your comments.
Peter

Hi Peter, that is some brilliant planning and beautiful representations of your new Lenco plate!! I would caution that the most dangerous source of noise is the motor/idler/platter interface, particularly the motor/idler as source of noise, then picked up by the platter/tonearm/cartridge. So you don't want the motor island to be TOO decoupled, but indeed bolted securely to the heavy plinth like all the rest (the constant reduction in noise as the mass increases proves this is effective), but disconnected as you have designed it to cut off that avenue of transmission. Though of course orientation of the motor must be perfect.

Speaking of high-mass, we now have some measurements/Empirical Evidence (using ears and a trick to make rumble more audible, that is) in the form of measurements taken as mass increases of noise and its suppression. Have a gander at this, lifted from the Hi Fi World website:

"Just one final tip! In order to check how much “noise” is getting from the motor to the deck chassis/plinth (and subsequently to the stylus):-

1)Take a matchbox (ideally with a few matches in it) and place it on the chassis (NOT on the platter!) next to the platter and within “reach” of the cartridge.
2)Turn the volume control of the amp to minimum. Gently lower the stylus onto the matchbox.
3)Carefully switch the deck on. Slowly increase the volume control. The matchbox acts like a sounding board and amplifies any sound emanating from the deck.

Obviously, this does not show up any deficiencies in the main bearing but it can be very revealing and is useful when fine tuning....Go away for a day and there's a stack of posts to read! Clive, I think clarifying what we are calling everything is a good idea, as my terminology (turntable chassis bolted to a plinth sat on a base) is a little different to yours (turntable chassis bolted to motorboard sat on plinth). Cobblers, I think I have misunderstood some of your comments as a result, apologies if this has caused confusion. Anyway, just been in search of some of the dreaded rumble using a matchbox (thanks John T). Rumble was not something I had concerned myself with in any of my experiments as I had not been noticing it and I had therefore rather forgotten about it. Cranked up the volume to a moderately loud level, sat the stylus on said matchbox and stuck my head against a speaker. Rumble rumble! Next thing I remember, my wife was leaning over, dabbing a cold flannel against my forehead, I must have been out for five minutes, it must have been the shock....But seriously though, I am hard pressed to hear it from my listening position when the room is totally silent and when there is music playing, no way. Out of interest I removed the spacers that separate my two part plinth and bolted all six layers of birch ply together into one lump and listened again. Rumble was quite considerably reduced (I am guessing) perhaps a third. No way I was going to hear this from my listening seat. It would have been interesting to have tried this when it was in its hollow 1970s box, bolted to a bit of warped 12mm chipboard, with no proper feet. Out of curiosity I thought it would be nice to see the rumble, so I hooked up my scope, and there it was, not a simple sine wave, but not far off, by the look of it a low base frequency with two or three harmonics thrown in and a bit of other spurious noise. This seems like quite a good way of "listening" to the mechanical noise of your deck? Incidentally it was also interesting walking across my room. My seemingly solid concrete floor and heavy equipment rack didn't seem quite so solid when I watched the scope go crazy with every step. Anyway, not quite sure where I am going with this, but clearly the accepted high mass approach is doing what we are told it will do. Assuming the mechanical noise my turntable is making is fairly typical, it seems likely then that those of us preferring lighter wooden plinths (motorboards) are tolerating a higher level of rumble, but not one that is likely to be a problem during use."

Now, let's think about this for an instance: how much more effective would the experiment have been if the two stacks had not been bolted but instead glued together? And what effect on the sound is there as the mass increases and allows ever-finer levels of resolution to emerge from ever-reducing noise? My own experiments prove to my own satisfaction that there is absolutely no penalty in terms of PRaT, in fact the reverse, but with the caveat that as resolution increases, more and more care must be taken with set-up.

And using those scientific instruments - my ears (and faith in them and empirical evidence) - again, I have for the first time tried walnut as an armboard material, and was amazed to hear an increase in PRaT and coherence/gestalt over maple!! The midrange seems airier and more natural, as does imaging, and highs seem more natural. Now, the walnut seems more natural-sounding overall, more a midrange material, while maple in comparison sounds more Hi-Fi, with higher highs and perhaps lower tighter bass (not sure yet). But with some tonearm/cartridge combos (like the Denons which can occasionally sound hard) walnut is a an excellent fix/balancer. On the other hand, too-gentle combos might profit from the maple. Me, for the increase in PRaT and coherence/gestalt, I think I very definitely prefer the walnut. Of course, this is only using the SME V/Denon combo so far.

The walnut was such an improvement in PRaT/gestalt, that it raised my ESS/Pierre amp combo up to near the level of my Sony 3130F/AR2ax's in the Kundalini Effect (and don't underestimate either the old Sony amps or the ARs), tipping the ESS combo into producing the Kundalini Effect which it just shy of producing with the same frequency and intensity as the Sony/AR combo. In fact, I now need two sound-rooms, as I can't live without the glorious highs, midrange, clarity and perfection of the Pierre Amp/ESS (Heil Air-Motion transformers) combo, and can't live without the intense Boogie Factor/Kundalini Effect (which is caused by the tremendous coherence/music-cut-of-whole-cloth along with serious PRaT, SLAM and DRIVE, and a good dollop of midrange neutrality) and unbelievable bass of the Sony/AR combo!! And common to both systems is, of course, the Giant Glass-reinforced Direct-Coupled Lenco!

I am starting now on my Giant Garrard project, and am already eyeing my Sony 2250 to see if I can't boost its performance, as I hear something special from this old DD workhorse, and am hoping to bring to light another Giant. Of course, there's the tremendous Rek-o-Kut eyeing me accusingly as well. Perhaps I'll take some time off to get all these projects off the ground, and eventually start a new thread, we'll see. In the meantime, I'm working behind the scenes to get the Lenco and other idlers more exposure out in the mainstream, where the Conquest (of The World by idlers) is continuing apace, even if it is less visible for now. Watch this, or a new, Space!! In the meantime, I hope you all are having as much fun as I am! Vive la Lenco, Vive la Idler-Wheel!!

Jean,
I am very interested in your rumble tests, but I am not too clear on the plinth you did the tests with. Is it your Giant lenco or did you use an older lighter version?
In other words should you need to go substantially beyond The Giant plinth?
Peter

Hi Peter: the experiment was not mine, but reported by someone else on the Hi Fi World forum, and I am guessing the mass was nowhere near that of a Giant Lenco. This report is merely corroboration for what I have already heard: a LARGE improvement in every way with the extra added mass. A "small" (40-pound) Lenco was already unthinkably good, easily crushing a VPI TNT MKII for instance, and in musical terms pretty well everything else in the world (barring other large idler-wheel drives), and in terms of noise too. A Giant at 70 pounds is much better (beyond any known limits so far, but then, so was the 40-pounder ;-)), and I am working on a true Giant, at roughly 100 pounds, to enable me to mount three tonearms at a time: I got it bad!!! I have no idea what the extra 30 pounds or so will gain me sonically (diminishing returns?), I'm building it to accomodate my Maplenoll tonearm as well as two others. I have a G88 to work with for which I will cannibalize the parts from an L78 or L75 (newer motors are better, and metal idlerwheel and carrier arm). When this Beast is ready I will report on whether improvements are even audible!! This extra mass is only truly effective/audible when combined with Direct Coupling.