Bass response from Goldring Lenco GL 75

[vince]

A brief note to say thanks for the information re Goldring/Lenco TT.  Excellent to see that info regarding such a creature is available.   Just bought one (ridiculously cheaply) & it's in mint condition: v. pleased! The sound (at least at top & middle) really is great!  Only problem is that the bass response leaves a bit to be desired.   I appreciate that at $40.00 (AUS) can't expect perfection.  Wondering whether any adjustments would increase bass response?   Usually quite a bass-rich system.  I'm running the TT into a NAD preamp, into a SONY poweramp (5 pin din from the TT).  Also wondering whether direct input (have to buy an adaptor or change leads) would increase bass? Any advice etc appreciated. Cheers all!

[steve roper]

mate I,m in Aus tto, have a Lenco, but a differnt modelan 88 I think (not exatly sure though) has this heabily dampenned platter- sounds fantastic. I am using an Ortofon MM cart. I tried an Ortofon MC- too havy for the arm, but for a couple of weeks it was dynamite! I am in Canberra, if you want to chat. Lenco fans are few anddd far between. An obvious tweak, if you want ot keep the arm, is to damp the ar, trywrapping in sorbothane steve

[Piotr]

Has the Lenco suddently become the mosty interesting tt in the world? Maybe it's time to start producing them again, anyone interested?  ;)

[lotum_gustavit]

Hi guys, As for any perceived lack of bass response with the L75, I second cantelever in that it is almost certainly a question of cartridge. I have a Goldring 1042 on mine, and the balance of bass with respect to other frequency ranges is perfect (compared to CD's or other turntables/cartridges). The cables inside the L75 arm have a capacitance of about 90 pF. Depending on the additional capacitance of your phono cables (probably around 30 pF/foot) and the input capacitance of your preamp, the inductance of your cartridge (I'm assuming that you're using an MM cartridge) may cause a peak or a rising response within the audio range, resulting in a subjective lack of bass frequencies. Check your cartridge specifications for the recommended value of capacitance. The L75 hails from a different era, and I think that should be taken into account when assessing it. While I don't want to start romancing the past, the fact remains that back then many companies (companies of integrity!) offered decent products even at lower than the top end of the market. They were able to do this because in those days the cost of both materials and labor were cheaper than they are now. The cost to manufacture the platter alone in the L75 today would be astronomical--especially if it were made in Switzerland! No wonder then that many companies have resorted to the use of plastic or even chipboard for this part. So, starting to produce L75's again in 2002 would probably not make any kind of financial sense. The product would probably be good enough, but the price would be way too high. We do, however, in 2002 have the advantage that we can buy second-hand L75's for *very* low prices. These prices in no way reflect the cost of manufacturing such an item. And this really is the secret behind the L75's charm: Being able to own & use well-made mechanical things can give a lot of satisfaction.There are, admittedly, well-made mechanical precision instruments (turntables as well as other things) being produced today, but their prices tend to put them out of the reach of ordinary mortals. Peggotty

[euclid]

These are some things that may be the problem. This is not a complete list. Check you stylus. 1. Be sure that it is clean and dosen't have excessive wear. I have even see stylii that have had the dimond knocked off their end that still play records. They always sounded awful. 2. Inspect the fine tube that the stylus is mounted on. I must not be bent or crimped. 3. Be sure that the stylus is propery seated in the cartridge. I have encountered some that work with the stylus only partially seated. The sound was weak.  I also believe that they had weak bass. Check you tonearm and it's setup. 1. The tone arm should move up and down and side to side with no perceptible friction. (you should need exception test equipment to measure it.) 2. The tone arm should be able to move up and down enough to keep the needle firmly in the record groove. Cuing lever adjustments are one souce of this problem. 3. Check the arm balance and tracking force. The force must be within the range that is good for the stylus and the tone arm. 4 If you have an antiskating device, check it for any free movement throughout it's range of movement. It should be set properly. If you aren't sure if it's OK, disable it temporaily, if you can. You may need a little more tracking force without it. Check the wiring carefully. 1. Be sure that you don't have the channels crossed up. 2. Broken wires usually case severe hum at the low levels of phono pickups. They can also just cause loss of bass. 3. Check the phasing of the channels. If they are out of phase (and the rest of the system is in phase). The bass will be OK on Left or Right Channel alone, a little weak in stereo, and almost nonexistant with both channels mixed to mono. THe effect is very noticeable on mono records where the everthing will be much weaker in a mono mix. Check the preamp. 1. It should have proper RIAA equalization. The highs are boosted on the record. The preamp EQ brings the overall frequency response to flat. Mic preamps often have enough gain but lack the EQ. They will sond thin (weak bass). 2. If the preamp is old it may have bad electrolytic capacitors. Electrolytics tend to loose capacitance over the years, especially if they are not kept near room temperature or below. They are everywhere in most solid state designs. They are found in smaller quanities in tube preamps. They are used for power supply filtering, decoupling (power supply bypassing to prevent feedback and maximize sepration, and in feedback paths to allow high AC gain in with stable DC characteristics.