Heading back all the way to my most budget model, the TJN Standard Lenco, that being a Lenco mounted in a small TJN plinth with a tonearm in the original armhole, no separate armboard. The following are all improvements that did not exist in the earliest days of the Audiogon “Building high-end ‘tables at Home Despot” thread when nevertheless the Lenco rebuilds outperformed all of the popular high end tables of the day as reported by the participants: Linns, Well-Tempered, VPIs etc..!
First of all the bearing gets an upgrade (better thrust plate): now the thrust plate is FUNDAMENTAL here, as the entire turntable turns on it, this achieves a DRAMATIC improvement all by itself, when done with a metal alloy that sounds good, even if the rest of the main bearing remains unchanged. The TJN Mod GREATLY improves speed stability by providing absolutely stable torque at all speeds at any point across the graduated motor spindle, and this is audible as a GREAT increase in detail, micro and macro dynamics, transient speed and tightness of bass. The motor is rebuilt, which both improves speed stability even further but also greatly reduces noise and vibration. The Direct Coupling to my standard Classic TJN plinth GREATLY reduces noise and also increases PRaT, bass, tonal accuracy and dynamics! Given years of developments and parts I wanted to make this rebuild available to those on a budget, and to upset audio reviewers, curious myself to see what all these developments had achieved sonically.
This particular one was a later Lenco L78 from the days when the company was bought and moved to Italy. In lieu of the old Lenco tonearm a new standard gimbal tonearm was installed by the Italians, of surprising quality! The older Swiss models should, for this project, be replaced with either Linn Basik tonearms or the Jelco ST-250, these having the same mounting distance as the original Lenco tonearms.
For the evaluation I mounted my favourite budget cartridge, the Ortofon Concorde 40th Anniversary which is surprisingly detailed with Decca-like bass and dynamics! The result of course was amazing, with the usual Lenco Swing and Swagger which Lenco owners love, with bouncy organic and deep bass to outperform anything well into four and lower five figure turntables! The Direct Coupling to a high-mass plinth (relatively), along with careful rebuilding and treatment of the motor made the machine dead quiet, allowing amazing levels information to come through unsullied and in perfect balance.
It would be instructive to see how this would do against any competing turntable up to $10,000.
The Linn Basik extracts even more detail and clarity, startingly so, and if one was interested in these dimensions and look but wanted far higher performance, something along the lines of a Linn Ittok or Ekos or Zeta, any tonearm with 210 mm mounting distance, and an MC would provide startling performance!
Regardless, the Italian Lenco’s gimbal-bearing tonearm is of surprising quality, has a standard mounting collet so can be upgraded via better headshells and will accept standard DJ style cartridges like the Ortofon Concorde, no modifications necessary, seek them out!!
Introductory price $950 USD PROVIDED A LENCO IS FOUND AND SHIPPED TO ME. Buyer also provides tonearm, though I may be able to help.
