Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

Hi all, just here to report the Incredibilitude (you heard it here first, folks) of, what else but Idler-Wheel Drives?!? I have, being a Heretic, been driving the Klipsch Heresy MKIs with a 100-watt Mission 777 power amp, and backed up by the Lenco and Garrard have heard things which were not even remotely hinted at before!! Hey Mario, if you thought my set-up was detailed last time (with the Pierre amp and ESS AMT4s with Heil Air Motion Transformers), you ain't heard NUTHIN' yet!!

IMAGINE driving a pair of horn speakers with an incredibly Powerful Idler-Wheel Drive AND an incredibly powerful SS amp (with two transformers and more juice than I've ever experienced)...run for cover!! But actually, I am amazed at how delicate and unforced this system sounds when required, like acoustic guitar pieces which are rendered with more perfect delicacy and a light touch (but lightning response: the Mission amp was the fastest amp on the planet when it was released) than I have ever heard in my system. BUT. When something is SLAMMING, it is SLAMMING, She Blinded Me With Science hitting with more speed, SLAM, detail and forceful BASS than I have ever heard in my system. And the Klipsch are reputed to be weak in the bass. Not with an idler-wheel behind it (both Garrard and Lenco), and not with a powerful SS amp behind them! I also have them mounted up on stands so the tweeter is at ear level, and there is now nary a hint of horn colouration, brightness, grain and aggression of any sort. Neutral. I have found my speaker. I will however, eventually be hooking up a tube amp to them, the Search is on.

Now I had bought these speakers with an eye to trying out an SET, but having the Mission handy (which I bought because it was made in Canada back when metal-work was cheap in Canada - the big MISSION cast in metal for the faceplate with the ISSI being the heatsink - and I wanted something Canadian in my otherwise international set-up), I hooked it up after it wowed me via the KEF 103.2s. I realize now that good as my system was - and almost all who have heard my system either already had an idler-wheel drive, or went on to buy one - I have not even been scratching the surface of just how good these are, when properly optimized. Even via simple acoustic guitar works I heard things which I have never heard before, such as the clear separation of several guitars into 3 guitars, and with more delicacy and dynamics Macro- and Micro- as well. But with something already dynamic and impactful, like Thomas Dolby, the results are quite simply frightening. My skin is still sitting empty on the couch :-). I also extracted what sounded like an extremely powerful 40 Hz from the Heresies!

So now to the role of dynamics in sound. This current set-up shows just how important dynamics Micro- and Macro- are to the retrieval of detail and information, something which, as you all know (or should) idler-wheel drives excel at (along with every other audio attribute there is), so that should be "particularly" excel at. Imagine 3 guitars all playing at the same time. Most turntable/cartridge combos have difficulty keeping the three clearly separate. But the INCREDIBLE ability of an idler-wheel drive to capture the LEAST (and MOST) change in dynamic pressure means the three guitars are now much easier to apprehend. This is because the three guitarists are playing with varying amounts of pressure (or pluck), and the ability of an idler-wheel drive to faithfully capture this PLUCK (which test is failed by belt-drives which slow down at EXACTLY these moments of intense groove modulation) means the three guitarists are clearly identified and so separated, each strand and item of musical information faithfully organized and separate....and yet, with that ineffable Idler Magic, together in a way that again eludes the competition (this due to Speed Stability, of course, meaning perfect timing, or as near as). Ditto ALL instruments/recordings/electronica, ALL faithfully captured, organized, and communicated.

Now an idler-wheel drive is one thing, but not all stereo components further down the chain are created equal, some speakers are a faster than others, some preamps faster than others, and some amps faster than others. One thing I'll say for my current set-up, which is likely sweetened by the presence of the Audio Research SP-8, is it more faithfully captures ALL the dynamics a micro- and macro- (with the help of the horn-loaded Klipsch, with metal horns, and the ultra-fast Mission) than anything I've ever heard, ever, anywhere, at any time. This also means, in the light of what I've just written, that it is also the most detailed and informative system (AND exciting) I've ever heard.

Does this mean it's the best? NO, the little Sony is definitely velvetier and smoother (which helps with bright/grainy recordings, or records with groove damage), and I imagine a good tube amp will preserve the speed and detail (or near to), and inject some warmth (but this system IS surprisingly smooth and captures rich resonances easily, I'm in no hurry). Also, the Fab AR2ax's still preserve the incredible bass SLAM/weight/heft and the consequent edge in PALPABILITY (which I hope to inject into the Klipsch via tubes), and the amazing KEF Reference 103.2s still, incredibly (at half the size or less), go deeper in the bass and with an almost equal sense of limitless dynamics (but NOT speed) and detail as the Klipsch. I'll be experimenting further.

All this to say, that as much as I thought I was retrieving from the Lenco and Garrard 'tables, I've not even been scratching the surface!! No wonder the Lencos and Garrards I've sent out to do battle are crushing such luminaries as various EMTs and Platine's , not to mention the usual Suspects, Linns, VPIs, Nottinghams and so forth. They are being plugged into various high-sensitivity systems with balls and sound pressure, which CLEARLY show the great Idler Strengths (and once again, it's ALL strengths...just that some are more striking than other in a washed-out world of belt-drives and anemic DDs). The more responsive your speakers/set-up, the more clearly the Idler Strengths will be heard (and the further behind belt-drives and DDs will be left behind in the dust, choke), in a nutshell.

Be-OO-tiful receiver Mike, I've just scored a tube beastie to match up to my Klipsch (and various others for the fun of it, including the very sensitive ESS), not as vintage as the Scott, but still vintage. I've been sitting on a totally-fried tube Fisher integrated, also reportedly good.Gotta get off my ass and fix that one some day. Great to hear about the Eicos too, I'll have to retire from the human race and lock myself in a shed with a soldering iron and a listening chair. Have fun all in the Land of Vintage Gestalt!!

I probably missed my change at the top Eicos - there was a pair of HF60's on ebay a couple of christmases ago - no one bid at about $900.

Mike

Hello John,

I may have missed it somewhere but as best as I can surmise you do not use any kind of speed controllers on either your Lenco or Garrard. Do you think it is unnecessary with these tables? I am having a plinth built for my Lenco right now and want to optimize it to the maximum. I have been wondering whether to invest in a VPI SDS or other brand of speed control. Would much appreciate your input on this matter.

Kind regards,

Hi Montepilot, you are correct, I have not felt the need for any speed controllers on either the Lencos or the Garrards so far. And so far, no matter the level of performance (or cost) of any system, neither Lenco nor Garrard has found even close to its equal, without any form of filtering or controller. But, I have not, in fact, ever tried speed controllers, having tested a filter or two to which the Lenco seemed immune. I advise you first to get to know the Lenco as-is (restoration, mass and coupling FAR more important, like the foundations of a house) before experimenting along these lines. Give yourself a few months at least in order not to be duped by optimism and illusion ;-), before trying something along these lines. Both machines rely on pure analog momentum.

There has been a running theme in my various battles through the years to have the idler-wheel recognized as the best of the three systems (because I, and others exposed to it, clearly heard it), to wit, that the human ear was STILL the best measuring instrument in judging the relative worth of equipment, theories, implementations and approaches, a statement which has brought a fair share of criticism in the past on other threads (to the effect that measurements and scientific equipment was better-suited to the task) by the scientifically-inclined. From what my ears (and those of others) tell me, I come to the conclusion that speed measurements do NOT reflect reality and are therefore useless and worse, misleading, as simple auditioning makes clear the Lenco's (and Garrard, and various other supreme idlers) superior speed stability OBVIOUS. Hold in your minds the immortal words of Daniel R. von Recklinghausen, former Chief Research Engineer, H.H. Scott, who understood this fundamental issue: "If it measures good and sounds bad, it is bad; if it measures bad and sounds good, you have measured the wrong thing."

Along these lines is also the admirable statement by the musician/pianist BYRON JANIS - and thanks to Dave Pogue for bringing my attention to an interesting discussion of acoustics by Mr. Janis, in the article "The Sounds of Music: Want a concert seat with good acoustics? So does the pianist", Saturday, January 27, 2007 12:00 a.m. EST Wall Street Journal. Herewith the relevant passage: "The greatest concert halls we have--Symphony Hall in Boston, Carnegie Hall in New York and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, to name a few--combine clarity and brilliance without sacrificing warmth. It is interesting that all were built before 1901, prior to the availability of scientific instruments. Apparently, the human ear was (and for me still is) the best instrument of all."

The point is is the role of ASSUMPTION in science. The main assumption which plagues science so far as acoustics and stereo equipment goes being there are no assumptions, that all is built on solid fact!! From this, in particular, it is assumed that measuring equipment and theories are built on a foundation of FACT, empirical observations and so forth, which the result of the tests developed from these theories and facts - i.e. that Turntable A has better speed stability measurements than Turntable B - demonstrates is patently false. So, for instance, scientific theory based on incomplete data led to the theory/belief that the human ear could not hear the brick-wall filters used in early CD players...but the human ear proved to be all too sensitive to this. Then then human ear could not hear beyond 20 kHz...but, the human ear turned out to be, somehow, sensitive after all to these frequencies, which is why more and more equipment measures and performs up into the Stratosphere of frequency response. In all things, the human ear is the measure of a theory or a piece of equipment intended to measure what the human ear is supposed to be able to hear (or be sensitive to in ways not understood), not the reverse.

And ask yourselves, how many scientific theories we believe in implicitly are equally built on unseen and unidentified false assumptions and incomplete data/"evidence" ASSUMED to be complete? Go ye out and listen to a properly-restored idler-wheel drive all, and begin to THINK. And if thinking is too much to ask, then simply glory in the stunning sound of beautiful music faithfully reproduced with all (or most) of its impact and POWER intact! Try it, you'll like it!