Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II


“For those who want the moon but can't afford it or those who can afford it but like to have fun and work with their hands, I'm willing to give out a recipe for a true high-end 'table which is easy to do, and fun to make as sky's the limit on design/creativity! The cost of materials, including 'table, is roughly $200 (depending, more or less), and add to that a Rega tonearm. The results are astonishing. I'll even tell/show you how to make chipboard look like marble and fool and impress all your friends. If there's interest I'll get on with this project, if not, I'll just continue making them in my basement. The next one I make will have a Corian top and have a zebra stripe pattern! Fun! Any takers?”

The Lead in “Da Thread” as posted by Johnnantais - 2-01-04

Let the saga continue. Sail on, oh ships of Lenco!
mario_b

Showing 7 responses by gilbodavid

Hello all. Not posted here for a while, but feel the need after enjoying the wonderful lack of logic and misunderstanding and resulting strange assertions that follow jean's posts. I'm not sure about "feces-slinging" (i hope he did say that somewhere) but am sure of:
"With all the negativities so far in this trip (relating to the Lenco, the trip itself a fabulous adventure), it's no surprise the Yahoos, baboons and hyenas on VA continue to sling mud and deny the evidence - as all good Yahoos do - of three years and more of Mighty Lenco success"
I love jean's writing style, and accept the sentiment i think its written in. Jean has never said he is the inventor of anything, more the discoverer. He is happy for others to have discovered before him, and would doubtless praise Mosin's stunning player with its lenco motor. If you are in doubt as to what jean meant by "discover" when there are obviously more than one meaning, then I suggest you do not jump to potentially embarressing conclusions, but ASK HIM. he is always honest, courtious and erudite in reply, both privately and publically, as far as I know from being involved in both threads from near the beginning. he has also had i think many venomous private emails for every public one, so his occasional loss of calm must be seen in this context.

To right off Jean and others implimentation of the lenco and say your modern expensive deck is so much better without seemingly having heard it is frankly laughable. It also misses jean's very point of making the lenco mods simple so many could try them. The fact that they have turned out so well is wonderful for all of us. All my audiophile friends (some with extraodinarily knowledge) still laugh at me re the lenco NOT HAVING HEARD IT. however, Jean is right to say that a highly regarded EMT owner has admitted his Lenco is better, and I remember clearly Albert Porter did say on the origional thread that the lenco pre direct coupling and heavier plinths was close to his Walker and in some respects bettered it, with an inferior arm and cartridge! My Lenco outsmarted my Garrard 401 (though Jean says for him they are too close to call) and he was very aware, as I remember, of people like Shindo in Japan doing similar things before he discovered them.

Now what jean does not like, as far as i can tell, is people having blind prejudice, and judging with no evidence. In this way, he says, they are ape-like. I see this, if anything, as a slur on our leaf-eating friends, who may indeed be more intelligent than certain members of the audiophile community when the word Lenco is breathed. I can kind of understand this because i have had rather large prejudices based on limited experience, and am still learning the value of synergy.

Furthermore, jean has tirelessly and generously shared all his discoveries in vintage gear, some of which i have followed and found him to be totally accurate on. The sony V-fets smoked my leak tl12+'s, and sell on ebay for $70-$80 still! the RB300 rewired with TWL's mod equalled my Origin Live Silver. The Denon 103 is used by some of the industry's giants, and suddenly he is in very good company saying for 3 years that vintage mm's can equal modern expensive mc's. Raul used to get a lot of flack too re his dislike of stepups for mc's, until he introduced his preamp and met many of this community's high fliers who found him, like jean, to be an enthusiastic, nice and extremely knowlegable person. Suddenly people realised he has a wealth of knowledge (and gear!). And what's he saying now - that for him vintage mm's equal expensive mc's. His thread is fascinating, and like jean, he has obviously put in huge amounts of time. Yes, the Empire mm at $70 is almost as good as the Allert (sorry for mispelling) and yes he does own the Allert (and many others).

So to end my longest ever rant, this has been from the beginning the friendliest and most welcoming long term thread that i have been part of, mostly because of jean and a few others. So please dont try and spoil it as some have with your misquotes, missunderstands, or judgements of him without experience of what he is talking obout or being willing to even try it. Dont be one of those people. take Jean in the good spirit he obviously tries to share, enjoy his journeys and take what you want from it. Isnt it so amazingly cool that a "lousy" deck that still goes in the UK for $100 can approach with head held high one of the most expensive decks ever made! Isnt hifi addictively nuts, and why have i got bids on 16 bits of kit on epay right now?

mosin, your deck is absolutely amazing, and thats just the photos!

Good luck with customs jean. I have been looking forward to seeing how Srajan gets on with you and the Lenco, specially as he soes not seem to be a turntable man at all so far. It would be a shame for everyone, and specially you with the expense and work in getting there if it didnt happen.
i know this is off subject, but internet radio on good headphones is seriously exciting. i've just discovered a parisian jazz station at 192kbytes playing very nice stuff. wonderful. lenco in storage so needs must! going to try headamp into it in a min to see if it boosts qulity...
I 3rd it. Jean, have you tried twl's tweak to the rega yet? Back to internet radio. Plasterer knealt down onto a 2" screw and it went fully into his kneecap! He had to use a screwdriver to get it out before going to hospital. Next plasterer 2 weeks away. then i decorate, plug 10mm monster mains cables (one for each component) directly from a Memera mains consumer unit into my hi fi with dedicated copper pipe earthing, and if the whole thing doesnt go up in flames i'll have one serious lenco/rega/denon lead system to play the 20 lp's ive bought since I moved into my present building site lookalike house 4 months ago. Hee
Hello all. my lenco is about set up after a 10 month hiatus destroying my bottom disc lifting a piano, with resultant surgery, then buying a house with 6 months work needed (sorry back). in the meantime, while recovering, i've found the most amazing internet radio site - digijazz at http://www.abc.net.au/dig/jazz/default.htm
playing fascinating jazz amazingly interesting nonstop!
Meanwhile, i cannot play lenco as my sony pre is in need of tlc and i sold all my phono stages to buy my house. However, today i have set up my Yamaha NS-615 speakers, given my sony power its 2 day warm up, and have been frankly astonished by the sound coming out of these little speakers, them just sitting on the floor! Ok i have got seperate 10mm mains cable coming from my hifi consumer unit to every component, but these speakers are remarkable. and all because i was looking for Ns-625's, a la jean. Jean, i'm amazed at the amount of time you have to throw hifi together experiment and what you come up with next.

mgreen love your system. heard a fisher about 2 yrs ago, it was seductive!
billybuck jean has done some sp10 comparisons, doubtless he will fill you in. its definately worth persevering with your lenco, you've been quite unfortunate so far as generally the simplicity and build quality of the lenco means few problems ever!

My system needs updating with new stuff and new lenco pics as most was sold for me house. still, you'll get to see pics of my twee little (by usa standards) new lounge.

Turboglo it is seriously exciting to have it up and running and sounding so good. would be interesting to hear what arm etc you're using with your lenco.

Jean, i've been hankering after some klipsches ever since i found the klipsch forums a few years ago. I've actually delayed posting about the yamaha ns-615's because they're so cheap on epay still i didnt want to increase demand. then i suddenly relised i've already got a pair! EER! They even make cds sound decent, which is a novel experience for me.

got my eye on a weird tube amp at the moment. more if i end up purchasing the little blighter
My last post seems not to have gone on. Jean you sly dog.. i bet you have bought up 50 Lencos, cut Srajan in and now youre going to anounce it to the world through 6moons and make a killing. Nice. Seriously, good luck with the adventure of getting all the bits to him and together, and then to open his ears to the wonder of vinyl and Lencos.
Hello all. Just to back up jean's claims re old sony stuff. My TA-3200F amp outgunned my Leak tl12+ monoblocks and homemade triode monos in every area mentioned by jean above, to my utter astonishment. As a result i sold the Leaks for $1,200 and kept my $200 sony. the Sony TA-4650 that i have has a dead power stage, but the pre stage has a lovely phono section and partners my 3200 beautifully, driven of course by my red Lenco. Bought a Marantz PM4 (a ken kessler personal recommendation, despite his rather obscure taste in ancient brass bands, sorry ken) a few weeks ago, and its phono stage doesnt match the sony combo, but its line stage may be just ahead. 15 watts per channel into pure class A, some say even better than the Sugden A21 variants.