Thanks for the encouragement Bob, your enthusiasm is always much appreciated!!
Over here I enjoyed another bout of Crush the Belt-Drive, this time my own turntable in my own system! I've decided it was finally time to sell my Maplenoll, and so I carefully set it up for demonstration, and in setting it up in my system it sounded glorious. The Maplenoll rightly has an excellent sonic reputation (though criticized for build quality, I was the unofficial Maplenoll technician in my area and discovered secrets for flawless performance). For context, a fellow had recently contacted me, having discovered my participation in older Maplenoll threads on other forums, and contacted me. He wrote me to say he had a VPI TNT which was inferior to the Maplenoll in performance, and wondered if I had any tips to further the performance. In addition to being superb in terms of the usual audiophile obsessions - detail, frequency extension, imaging, and so forth - the reason the Maplenoll was my main source for so many years was its thunderous bass, amazing dynamics and incredible PRaT, being a true music-meister.
So, set up in my system it sounded glorious, so much so I worried, so I moved the same album over to the Lenco to settle the issue. WHAT a killing!! The bass which had been superb on the Maplenoll deepened and became much faster and more dynamic. Transparency - again superb on the Maplenoll - increased a hundredfold, details came out which were simply inaudible on the Maplenoll. Transient speed and dynamics macro- and micro- increased to an incredible degree. Even imaging, where the Maplenoll excels due to its linear-tracking tonearm, improved drastically via the Lenco (using the admittedly imaging-excellent RS-A1 tonearm)!
Finally, the musicality - gestalt, PRaT, entrancement - increased to a supernatural degree, to the point where I ended up once again in a multi-hour LP listening Mega-Session! I just hope none of those who may be considering the Maplenoll are reading this ;-)!
I've built myself a new Reference Lenco/Review Prototype for demonstration purposes, the Bauhaus Lenco, with single tonearm, that being the RS-A1 (with Denon DL-103"E"). The angular black-and-silver RS-A1 makes of the black-lacquered Lenco plinth with gray-recoated top-plate and platter a Bauhausian feast for the eyes (I like it anyway), simple, yet modern, a fortuitous accident! I'll include it under my "system". Have fun with your idlers all, WHAT music!!
