To Frankentable or not to Frankentable?

Serious advice needed. I finally got my hands on a long lusted after Lenco L 75 turntable. Unfortunately the tonearm was unusable so I took it off and went in search of a new arm. Well I located an Ariston RD 80 locally which had a Jelco built tonearm that would fit on the Lenco L 75. I bought the Ariston but when I got it home to test it out for fun it's such a lovely little table now I am confused! The Ariston is a gorgeous little table. It has the split platter like a Thorens and is much like a Thorens to my eye although even simpler and nicer in some ways. Yes cheaper, but still very very well-built. It came with an ortofon M20 cartridge which the seller said was no good because the cantilever was bent, however it's sways so little to one side I would consider it good! So anyway my dilemma is do I go through with my plan to remove the Jelco tonearm or leave it on the Ariston! What a quandary! I hate to break up the synergy of the Ariston! It sounds great!

 

Oh, don't be ridiculous. You're going to get a bespoke plinth and a whole new arm. That's how the idler game works. Don't fight it.

 

(But seriously, nine inch jelco arms are so cheap and plentiful on eBay there's no need to vivisect that cool table IMO)

 

Looks like you have two great tables.

 

Keep the Ariston as is and use it while you build the Lenco with another Jelco arm, new plinth etc.

 

Damn this Ariston sounds pretty nice! Very airy presentation.This Ortofon MC20 is no slouch, I suppose. But I need a step up transformer now! My living room Marantz is cranked to the gills to get any volume. Never had a MC before.

 

Now listen to this! I went thrifting thinking I might find an old Pioneer or Technics and I'd try to transplant that on the Lenco. It wouldn't be ideal, but I just to hear finally it! So I walk into a thrift store downtown and this is on the shelf! I almost fell over. $19.99! And the kicker, it needs a tonearm wand. So now I have another great table semi-complete that needs an arm. And the irony is I bought this Thorens TD-160mk2 thinking I could transplant the TP-16mkII tonearm, but now I can't bring myself to tear apart this Thorens! Man, when it rains it pours (and that's been a good pour lately!) I was recently lamenting not making any good finds and now another walks in the door. Three tables in a week! Great luck on one hand and great confusion on the other!

 

My friends can make as much fun of me thrift shopping as they like ... when I bring home a pretty much mint (except the dustcover) Thorens with this price tag.

And as a sidenote, you can't really trust any "authority" on the web. I read countless articles comparing the TD150 TD160 and TD160mk2 and NONE of them matched my table as far as bearings go. My TD160 Mk2 has a 10mm bearing with a ball bearing end. According to all these websites (which are all different) that never happened. You kinda get the feeling the Thorens factory played a lot of "mix and match."

 

It's generally never a good idea to Frankentable. Only if the project is based on a really cheap table would it make any sense and even then it is almpst always more economical to just buy another table. I would guess that your RD80 there is the best table of the three and I wouldn't bother with the others. What I would do is to sell the other two incomplete units to finance a decent step-up transformer for that Ortofon cartridge. That you will get some mileage out of. I have not been into an RD80, but if it is an early model, it may be similar to the RD11 that I had, which was literally an early Linn Sondek LP12, before they bought out the factory. If that is the case, the platter and bearing on your RD80 should be much nicer than the others. The arm and cart combo is fine on that as well.
-Bill

 

I have experience with all those decks and agree with Bill, the best bang for your buck will be to get the Ariston, serviced, properly set up and running at it's best, I rate it higher than either the Thorens or stock L-75, if you want a project then maybe keep the L-75, but to really outperform the Ariston I reckon you will need to spend a lot of time and some money on it, that's a choice you need to make, but selling it as is would bring in some decent cash as they are very popular for DIY projects.

By coincidence I picked up a Thorens 166 MKII with a broken arm a couple of weeks ago, it cost £3, I was thinking about spending £50 on a new belt and Rega arm plate then sticking a Rega arm on it, but my friend who was driving me at the time seems to fancy it as a project and he's more than welcome as I was just as likely to end up deciding to part it out as the easy and more financially sound option.

 

Is the Lenco you have one of the models that is used to make these re-booted 'super' tables? If so, I would simply clean up/restore the other two at minimal cost, and leave them unmolested. Then, do all the DIY upgrades to the Lenco if that is one of the models worth investing time, money and effort to.

 

Yes, people do spend lots of time and money building new plinths etc., for the L-75 and creating their perfect deck, they are really well engineered and built idler drives and there are some very impressive builds, but I always think they'd have been better starting with the G-88/99 which came as just a motor unit, minus arm and plinth, you are either limited by the existing L-75 arm board or you cut it off along with a slice of top plate which can look ugly and out of proportion.

 

Now you need a TP 62 arm wand: http://www.ebay.com/itm/THORENS-TP6...without-box-/151835854927?hash=item235a1f484f

 

So, now that you have at least one working table, the Ariston, a Thorens which may not need much, can you leverage your Lenco to the ideal one for modding, as you described? I'm aware of the whole Lenco as alternative to the old Garrard thing but never dove into it. And though I remember the old Garrards here in the States from back in the day, I really don't remember seeing Lencos. Then again, there may a lot of things I'm not remembering.

 

I'm not the OP, but if he wanted to go down the whole Lenco rabbit hole, service it, swap out any parts that need replacing, new plinth, new arm board and a decent arm, perhaps his Jelco then he might well end up with something that far outstripped the Ariston and depending on what he wants could also be stunning looking, the choice is spend a little time and money on the safe bet Ariston for a decent deck or spend an unknown amount of time and money on the Lenco's potential. The two decks do take a very different approach to playing records, some people prefer belt drive others swear by idlers.

The Goldring (Lenco) motor units were pretty much a direct match for the Garrards, G-88 for the 301 and G-99 for the 401 although the Garrards are much more common, the Goldrings used to be real sleepers, I'm not sure where prices are now, the GL-75 that the OP has is very similar underneath to the G-99 so can definitely approach the Garrards if properly plinthed and tweaked, it's almost certainly Swiss made, real quality.

 

You were right. The Ariston provides a much more natural presentation than the Thorens. There is a delicacy and balance to the instrumentation and vocals. The Thorens has more heft and punch, but it feels more forward, too, a more forced sound. The Ariston sound like an actual performance and is balanced just right. Naturalistic. I like this Ariston. I will still try to work the Lenco next as I really like the build of the table and bearing. I'm thinking of a Jelco/Mission arm for it. Now I want an RD11

 

I added one of these! I'm going to sell the Thorens and move along. I just put it up on Craigslist. I could list it here but I'm wary of shipping.