Lenco Legend

The Lenco L75 & L78 has been (unofficially) welcomed by numerous audiophiles in the turntable hall-of-fame.

Lenco being a Swiss manufacturer, have made some seriously good turntables in their day. You won't find a screw out of place on a Lenco turntable and they are built like the proverbial Mercedes-Benz!

The Lenco L75 (picture) sports a 4-kilogram zinc platter - machined and balanced to perfection. The main-bearing are a true work-of-art - I doubt that the main-bearing could ever introduce noticeable rumble into the platter. Driven by a two-pole AC induction motor with a conical-shaped spindle via the ever humble ‘idler-wheel’ it keeps speed quite constant. Very constant is more appropriate. From 16 rpm up to 90 rpm can be continuously adjusted by the Lenco’s fine idler-wheel system providing a wide laybackspeed range for all kinds of records - this being on of the main reasons why it is liked by so many audiofundis. The general turntable assembly of a Lenco is true topclass it is however the tone arm and plinth that disappoint.

Firstly, the tone arm utilizes a knife-vertical-pivot with rubber knife-supports. This is actually a very valiant design but the rubber-supports did not last long - it is guaranteed that when you get an old Lenco these rubber-pivot-supports will be perished. Spare replacements is very scarce and very expensive. Many would suggest that you cut out the top-right corner of the turntable chassis - to make space to a variety of after-market tone arms but collectors advise
against it. By turning the chassis 90 degrees in the plinth you can mount up-to two tone arms and exploit the machines capabilities to the max. I have seen many elaborate Lenco-’hotrods’ fitted with Dynavector, Rega, SME, VPI, Kuzma & Airtangent arms. You might think this is over-kill but to a Lencoowner it makes perfect sense.This is a very good turntable.

For a Lenco to excel it must be mounted in a very solid plinth. It is also very crucial to damp the chassis for this is one of the main parts that introduces rumble into the system. It is not entirely the idler-wheels fault. Because the chassis is pressed from a sheet of thin steel is resonates at a low frequency causing rumble and this is exited by the extremely heavy platter (relative to the light-weight chassis). With the plinth sorted out a Lenco is capable of ‘flying’ with some of the best machines out there.

GD