Vinylphiles...used/new TT/Cart combo under $700?

Do the classic Thorenses really have detractors? I'm not familiar with the 147, but I've rarely, if ever, seen anyone diss the 145, the 160 or the 125.

Some like turntables with minimal plinths, such as the Regas. Personally I'm not a fan of the Rega sound, but that may or may not be due to the minimal plinth.

So far as getting a fully tricked-out 1200... you can always start stock, and add upgrades.

There's no doubt that Johnnantais is correct that an idler wheel drive would be killer, and from all reports the Lenco is particularly amazing value. I use a Garrard 301 which I picked up for a few hundred on eBay and had a carpenter friend rustle up a skeletal plinth from Baltic birch ply for about $160... it now has a more substantial plinth from a guy in Ireland name Neil Hollow (click System below to see it), and this TT blew away my multi-grand, 3-arm Acoustic Solid One (a Scheu-Eurolab-type table from Germany, which I promptly sold).

Patrick

The highest priority 1200 mod is the tonearm rewire. It's better done before shipping the unit, the same goes for the threaded spindle (I'm still deciding on that one). If you want 78 RPM, that would be next. The outboard power supply follows, then the fluid damper and last the strobe disabler (have it too, but not installed yet).

Patrick, I'm impressed by your system--and very few systems actually impress me. Anyone with plenty money can buy stuff. Carefully assembling a system and reaching particular goals is a whole different arena. Like yours, my interconnects use naturally insulated silver, too. Now, you're missing a lot of good music available in digital formats. I solved the issue when I switched to a belt driven transport, which Dan Wright later modded. It's a mean salsa and merengue playing machine...a machine gun with a silencer!

Deano sold me a Densen air suspension platform and that's what decouples the Creature. It's really effective at dealing with vertical & lateral vibrations.

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Deano sold me a Densen air suspension platform and that's what decouples the Creature. It's really effective at dealing with vertical & lateral vibrations.

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Psychicanimal  (Threads | Answers)

This is for the Technics table? Then this platform does the work of a custom massive Lenco plinth?

The platform is comprised of three metal boxes, each with an aluminum half sphere 'piston' on top. A granite slab is placed on top of the 'pistons'. When the whole load is pushed down the 'pistons' act as springs ( and also work in the lateral plane ). The frequency of up and down cycles is dialed in to about three to five per second and the turntable leveled. It works like industrial platforms where the resonant frequencies are shifted down, but with pumped air instead of metal springs. It's really good, especially because the 1200's problem is handling lateral vibrations--not vertical.

This device and sticking Marigo Dots on the gimbal bearing housings & cartridge has brought a new dimension in clarity and definition. Keeping the bearing oil all the way to the top brings big improvements, too.

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The Lenco doesn't need a plinth in order to be Great, it is inherently Great. The plinth just brings it to a higher level. If you were to buy a Lenco, replace the rubber V-blocks with new ones, solder a better tonearm cable to the tags, put in some new oil for the bearing, apply some Dynamat here and there, and buy a Denon DL-103 which LOVES the high-mass Lenco tonearm, you would have several thousands of dollars worth of performance (and in terms of bass, dynamics and PRaT simply world class) for very little money. The trick with the original Lenco plinth is simply to defeat the suspension: remove the springs, torque down the Lenco to its own plinth via the provided screws, remove the bottom entirely as so many do with these "hollow-box" designs (like the Thorenses and LP12s) and mount the corners up on rubber feet or Tiptoes. If you are fortunate and can find one, the Decca International tonearm fits with precise geometry into the tonearm-hole of both the Lenco L75 and L78.

I once restored a Lenco in original plinth and fitted it with a Decca International and Grado Platinum for a fellow who had an Acoustic Signature Final Tool turntable with a SME 309/Benz Micro Ruby, and he MUCH preferred the Lenco/Decca/Platinum. He sold the Acoustic with no regrets, to put it mildly. Another fellow set up a Rega tonearm in the original hole despite improper geometry and VTA (as I did for a long while), set it up on bricks with no plinth whatsoever, and reported this combo easily beat his maxed-out Linn LP12. A friend of mine still, after 6 years, uses a Lenco with Rega RB-300 mounted in original hole, his system sounds glorious: true speed stability goes a looonnng way to reducing mistracking. Check under my "system" under my name on Audiogon to see the "Oak Lenco", which shows this set-up.

Once the suspension is defeated, then a stable platform does a lot to further improve the sound.