Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

Hello again fellow idler-wheelers: I'm here to report the latest bout of Crush the Belt-Drive. Once again, a VPI TNT, earlier edition (MKII I believe) was Crushed by a Giant Direct Coupled Lenco. The way it happened is more interesting than the fact that it happened, it being such a common occurrence and all ;-). As an aside, it doesn't occur to some that not only am I not exaggerating when I use the word "Crush" - a word which I am told some who have compared the rim-drive Teres 'tables to their own belt-drives have used - but that I am quite simply right about the inherent superiority of the idler-wheel drive system to the belt-drive system. This is not hypoerbole, not a stunt to attract attention. Of course, the unabashed use of "big" words DOES work as a PR tactic, but in this case entirely justified, as years of growing conversions attests. As I contantly write: how is it possible to exaggerate something which has not yet met even close to its match (the whole issue in the use of the word "Crush")?!? Also interestingly, Teres use the words "Direct Coupled", complete with caps, on their own website to describe their own version of the rim-drive.

Anyway, this fellow belongs to a jazz group who move meetings from sound-room to sound-room, each taking turns hosting, and all having quite serious systems. That evening it was held at John's place, who has posted previously on this and the old threads, who had a Giant Direct Coupled Garrard 301 (grease-bearing) set up with a Morch UP-4 (heavy wand) and Decca Super Gold, the best tonearm I have yet heard, incidentally, with the Decca. The fellow was smitten, and saw my Bauhaus Lenco sitting there on the floor. Being told it too was an idler-wheel drive, he did not hesitate and offered to buy it on the spot. This in a system which is not his, reminds me of the time more than a decade ago when I instantly heard the Greatness of the Idler when I had accidentally (unplanned) modded a humble Garrard SP-25. It shows this sort of out-of-context epiphany can happen to more than just one person. I arranged to loan it to him from Greece while I was traveling so he could test it out in his system, and he sent me the following words: "I finally got the Bauhaus over here and set it up with John's Rega arm and my cartridge. The VTA probably is not right but who cares. All I can say is: STUNNING! Truly, it is better than I could have imagined." As context, the VPI was set up with a Graham 2.2 ceramic tonearm, so in this way the VPI TNT had the advantage. In the end I had to build him an entirely new one to accommodate the different geometry of his Graham tonearm, and I'm keeping the Bauhaus for my own RS-A1, STILL one of the most sonically superb tonearms ever built, and an incredible sonic bargain.

I forgot in my list of projects to mention Reinderspeter's top-plates, something which is definitely on the agenda. In fact, I bought two, one being for two-tonearms and one for the Lenco-Noll project (it being slated to be married to a Maplenoll tonearm).

On the home audio front I continue to learn lessons and to plumb the depths of vintage audio: I am back to my Sony TAE-5450 preamp, which handily outperformed a Classé DR-5 preamplifier, which shows just how good the old Sonys really are (from back in the days when Sony was targeting McIntosh). Various of my amps were taken out by a defective ARC SP-8 (eventually repaired, but too late for my amps), so I was forced to resort to an untested Sony TA-3140F, which I originally ran with my new Klipsch Heresy MKIs. This was too bright, and out came my ESS AMT-4s, which provided not only the best balance, but also the most magic in this set-up. In fact, I'm pretty well back to the set-up I originally had when I started the original thread!! And it's STILL magical. For those who have forgotten, these vintage Sony electronics - especially from 1966 (TA-3130F, TA-3140F etc.) to 1976 (V-fets, TAE-5450, TAE-8450, etc.) are superb vintage electronics which see off many serious current pieces, especially in terms of overall dynamics, richness and that elusive PRaT; and the ESS speakers use the Oskar Heil Air-Motion Transformers, and as mid-to-high frequencies transducers have never been matched, let alone beaten (high-efficiency allied to beautiful detail and astounding dynamics). To my ear, and from extrapolating from readings, the AMT4s - the world's largest mini-monitors ;-) - are one of the most successful marriages of woofer to ultra-fast AMT transducers.

Anyway, have fun all, there are magical marriages to be found at all levels and all times, and for those on a tight budget vintage audio - ESPECIALLY the Lencos - is STILL the best way to go, with a little luck ;-)!

Hey Jean, I have actually done some work on my Giant Lenco #2 recently. (My work schedule kills me) In fact, all I have to do is finish sand and route some slots for arm boards. This one is a layer cake with MDF, birch ply and wall board - covered in band sawn veneer. Its ridiculous how many arms and carts I have now that I have never used - your fault. Still highly curious to heat them all.

BTW: over the summer, a Sony TAE 8450 was offered on ebay - the bids were low and the guy pulled it before I got a chance to bid.

MIke

Hi, Jean

Could you clarify vintage Sony amps for me? I have a vague memory of you saying the "F" series were VFETs, yet your last post differentiates them from the TAE series. Also I think you said originally that VFET amps needed an easy load to drive and lacked bass control? Could you also tell me which are the best sounding vintage/VFET amps in order and how they go with electrostatics? Thanks.

Hi Mike, guilty as charged :-)!! I myself still have all those tonearms, which I have never yet heard on a Giant Direct Coupled Glass-Reinforced Lenco. I'm REALLY curious to hear the Black Widow on this later Super Lenco, as well as the Mayware (which some say is superior to the pricey SME V), the SME 3009 MKII, my NOS Transcriptors Vestigal (which achieves state of the art detail with Grados) and especialy my new NOS Audio Technica ATP-12 tonearm, which appears to be built to higher standards than the superb AT 1005 MKII. For this detail I am currently constructing a workhorse Lenco to take everything from ultra-short tonearms (Vestigal) to ultra-long tonearms, so my fun will be endless. Probably the wrong thing to do for an analogue obssessive like myself :-).

Hi Wolf: I myself was confused by all the different vintage Sony lore, the best place to learn about the chronology of their developments is on The Vintage Knob, at www.thevintageknob.org. The reason I thought the earlier Sony electronics (TA-3130, TA-3130F, etc.) were V-fets was because of thir very rich and tubey sound, the V-fets being called the tube of the transistor world. But the V-fets came along later in the mid-'70s. The "F" designation on the earlier amps was their special audiophile version of what were already superb electronics, Sony's Statement to the world of their seriousness at the time. The earlier amps were simple TOS-3 amps, and yet I prefer them to the later and much more famous V-fet series. But the V-fets ARE superb, just that they're pussycats, not being able to deal with more difficult loads, needing easy speaker impedances, low reactivity and so on in order to sound their considerable best. I have heard that the V-fets are very good with electrostatics. The series I'm aware of is the X-450 series receivers, amps and preamps. And btw, I'm DYING to get my hands on a TAE-8450 Mike, I already have the earlier Statment premap, a 2000F, which is also superb.

And keeping on the track of Vintage and The Illusion of Progress, let's once again consider those old idler-wheel drives: the Garrards, Lenco, Rek-0-Kuts and others of the Days of Yore. These are STILL, apart from DD (which as you all know I consider inferior, perhaps due to the quartz-locking, experiments still to come with the servo-controlled variety - like the Sony 2250 - which are definitely more fluid-sounding), the only 'tables designed from the ground up, INCLUDING THE MOTOR, to combat the now evidently serious problem of Stylus Force Drag, which it was thought was dealt with by the simple momentum of heavy platters on belt-drives (NOT). These motors are extremely high-torque, large and powerful, and spin at roughly 1500-1800 RPMs, thus eradicating to a certain extent their own speed imperfecftions (no physical system is perfect). They are coupled very securely by a rubber wheel (which doesn't stretch or contract or slip, given basic maintenance) to their own platters, which are themselves flywheels, on the heavier models, regulating the motor's performance, thus creating a closed system which is utterly immune to Stylus Force Drag. Direct Coupling to a high mass (minimum 70 pounds) deals absolutely with the very powerful motors, leaving the field clear for state of the art audio performance in every area: detail, imaging, black backgrounds, dynamics, frequency extension at both extremes, razor sharp transients and most of all MAGIC...in fact, it is again not hyperbole to say that if one has not heard vinyl on a vintage idler-wheel drive so set-up, then one hasn't heard vinyl, PERIOD. Close to 20 years on, I continue to be amazed by the performance of these machines, as do all those who hear them, as attested by the latest convert in my previous post.

Anyway, keep having fun all, and don't forget those stellar and cheap vintage speakers as well, such as the Klipsch Heresies (MKI's with the metal horns), the AR2ax's and AR3a's (the world's smallest full-range speakers ;-)) and of course the ESS AMT-4's (the world's largest and heaviest mini monitors ;-))!!

With all due respect, Jean, the Sony ES stuff of recent years is pretty good for solid state, but those earlier efforts to me always sounded artificial, closed in, "gray", and the epitome of what one means when one refers to "transistor sound". Perhaps I hooked them up to the wrong speakers. I'll keep an open mind.

Just to stay on topic, long live Lenco and idler drive! I'm waiting with curiosity for the first new megabuck idler. It's gotta happen.