I prefer the tonearm in these earlier L70/Bogen B60-62.
Agreed.....very musical arm with a DL103.
Show us your Idler drive tables.
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Agreed.....very musical arm with a DL103.
I agree that the L70/Bogen B60/62 arm is underrated. But I'm still not using mine. One reason is that the monolithic headshell prevents an exact alignment on the Denon DL103. (To that end I bought an "open-style" headshell from a European maker a few years back and still haven't mounted it.) Another is that I ended up with a good deal on a Jelco SA-750L.
I had three nice L70s. I couldn't get the same VTF reading on successive needle drops with the stock arm on any of them. One was a virtually new unused surplus Bogen from the New York School system, transport screws still bolted tight, stylus protector on the M3D, AC cord still coiled up from the factory.
Maybe they need to rebuilt to work properly (no fun and touchy job) but I just dumped mine and built a PTP with a Schick 12" out of the nice B62. Even if I installed new precision bearings per the standard rebuild, it would still be a no overhang adjustment, non-standard headshell on a somewhat clunky arm.
I consider the L-70 arm a step above Rek-o-Kut but roundly unimpressive in general. Sounded "OK" with highly forgiving 3g+ tracking Pickering conicals and the like but I think it is highly overrated by Lenco fanboys.
The Lenco drive system is pretty good though. Does a lot of things right.
The other major improvement I discovered was to install Peter Reinder's upgrade bearing. VAST VAST improvement over my tight "new" stock bearing...and that was the only super tight specimen of the three I had. Try wiggling the spindle side-to-side on your Lenco and see what I mean!
Maybe they need to rebuilt to work properly (no fun and touchy job) but I just dumped mine and built a PTP with a Schick 12" out of the nice B62. Even if I installed new precision bearings per the standard rebuild, it would still be a no overhang adjustment, non-standard headshell on a somewhat clunky arm.
I consider the L-70 arm a step above Rek-o-Kut but roundly unimpressive in general. Sounded "OK" with highly forgiving 3g+ tracking Pickering conicals and the like but I think it is highly overrated by Lenco fanboys.
The Lenco drive system is pretty good though. Does a lot of things right.
The other major improvement I discovered was to install Peter Reinder's upgrade bearing. VAST VAST improvement over my tight "new" stock bearing...and that was the only super tight specimen of the three I had. Try wiggling the spindle side-to-side on your Lenco and see what I mean!
No apparent play in my bearing. But I would like one of Peter's.
And a PTP is my next step.
Unbelievably huge improvement from Peter's Lenco bearing, way more than expected.
There is also the sph bearing from Sien in Malaysia over on Lenco Heaven.
Based on my PTP bearing experiment, I bought one of Sien's 301 bearings. It's very nicely made. Well priced too.
Haven't got a chance to try it yet but if it is better than the grease bearing I have been using for 30 years, I'll be happy as a clam!
Really the only advantage I see with the PTP is freedom of arms, the 2nd amendment of analog, so to speak.
Maybe the smart thing to do is track down one of the few arms that are almost drop in, some Denon's are (DA-305?) but nobody is yakking much publicly about it, and then swap in a upscale bearing. I think that steel plate gives the mellow Lenco a bit of useful zing that is lost with a PTP on a dead slab.
I'm switching my PTP to a 2" thick mahogany guitar blank from the uber-dead 1.75" slab of industrial nylon it is on now. Very nice sounding table but a bit too sedate for my tastes sometimes. Others, I'm sure would totally love this effect but I'll take the spunky old 301 when listening to R.L. Burnside or even straight ahead jazz.
My more immediate plans are to get my Gates CB-500 and CB-77s online and see what they can do.
So far the 301 has outlasted at least 20 tables that I have tried over the past decades, maybe more that I don't even remember. Actually, I liked most of them...until I hooked the 301 back up!
There is also the sph bearing from Sien in Malaysia over on Lenco Heaven.
Based on my PTP bearing experiment, I bought one of Sien's 301 bearings. It's very nicely made. Well priced too.
Haven't got a chance to try it yet but if it is better than the grease bearing I have been using for 30 years, I'll be happy as a clam!
Really the only advantage I see with the PTP is freedom of arms, the 2nd amendment of analog, so to speak.
Maybe the smart thing to do is track down one of the few arms that are almost drop in, some Denon's are (DA-305?) but nobody is yakking much publicly about it, and then swap in a upscale bearing. I think that steel plate gives the mellow Lenco a bit of useful zing that is lost with a PTP on a dead slab.
I'm switching my PTP to a 2" thick mahogany guitar blank from the uber-dead 1.75" slab of industrial nylon it is on now. Very nice sounding table but a bit too sedate for my tastes sometimes. Others, I'm sure would totally love this effect but I'll take the spunky old 301 when listening to R.L. Burnside or even straight ahead jazz.
My more immediate plans are to get my Gates CB-500 and CB-77s online and see what they can do.
So far the 301 has outlasted at least 20 tables that I have tried over the past decades, maybe more that I don't even remember. Actually, I liked most of them...until I hooked the 301 back up!
PS- Just noticed that Sien has a few TD-124 bearings left.
https://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=28200.0;topicseen
If I had a 124, I'd be snatching one.
https://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=28200.0;topicseen
If I had a 124, I'd be snatching one.
mfrench
Senior Member
This is a work of industrial art, almost steam punk.
Presto 15G2
early 50's Radio Broadcast deck by Presto Recording Corporation of Paramus N.J. (c.52/53)
The speed is determined by slots in the Jetson-like apartment stack of brass 'washers", with each level offering the idler wheel a new diameter of capstan.
the fugly black shizz on the brass arm is a vibration damping bit of adhesive-backed rubbery product. It fit there, out of the way, and has been there since the build-up.
I had the wheel rerubbered by either Ed Crocket or Terry; don't recall; both top notch!
Speed adjust by twisting the knurled knob a few degrees to disengage the arm from the stacked speed post slot (three-level Jetson-like apartment building thing); then lift or drop the same knurled knob to the appropritate speed slot, and let the spring reengage the arm into the speed slot.
I rest the idler wheel, when not in use, by positioining the brass idler arm onto the outer edge of any of the speed slots. It stays in that disengaged "neutral" position without fail.
New rubber motor isolators:
Presto 15G2
early 50's Radio Broadcast deck by Presto Recording Corporation of Paramus N.J. (c.52/53)
The speed is determined by slots in the Jetson-like apartment stack of brass 'washers", with each level offering the idler wheel a new diameter of capstan.
the fugly black shizz on the brass arm is a vibration damping bit of adhesive-backed rubbery product. It fit there, out of the way, and has been there since the build-up.
I had the wheel rerubbered by either Ed Crocket or Terry; don't recall; both top notch!
Speed adjust by twisting the knurled knob a few degrees to disengage the arm from the stacked speed post slot (three-level Jetson-like apartment building thing); then lift or drop the same knurled knob to the appropritate speed slot, and let the spring reengage the arm into the speed slot.
I rest the idler wheel, when not in use, by positioining the brass idler arm onto the outer edge of any of the speed slots. It stays in that disengaged "neutral" position without fail.
New rubber motor isolators:
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