Classic Hifi Care

Never saw one like this before! and with a Lenco...wow!
All tube for EMP proof?
Music to get irradiated by. lol

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/it ... bb11166414

Wow indeed. A bit pricey but it appears to be a solid mil-spec device. That Lenco is a step up from mine, which has a stamped-steel turntable instead of that nice cast/machined one. I wonder why they used a variable-speed turntable. Maybe they were teaching code or something that would benefit from slowing down & speeding up?

Chris Campbell

For those of us who just fell off the turnip truck, what is the significance of Lenco? I never heard of it.

It's a Swiss turntable with speeds infinitely variable between the standard speeds. It uses a tapered motor spindle and an idler wheel that operates in a plane at right angle to the under side of the platter. They were of good quality. Later ones were component-quality. Mine is more akin to our V-Ms and such with a stamped-steel platter. When I got mine the rubber tire was kaput and I replaced it with a big O-ring which works just fine on that tapered spindle.

Chris Campbell

Got it! Thank you.

Well made high quality turntables, Swiss-made, more common in Europe and the UK than here but often sold under the Bogen-Presto name in the US in the '60s and under their own name since. Sort of a Dual or Thorens competitor, and very sought after, there's quite a cult about them now, often re-mounted on customized marble, granite, or concrete bases (or as the English call them "plinth", what we usually call a "motorboard"). Typically sell in the 400-800 range for decent stock ones. The one above is basically a Mil-Spec Lenco L-70. I had a '60s Lenco labeled as a "Bogen-Presto" a few years ago. Here's a "civvie" L-70:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325488369818?h ... R6LnzLLbYQ

Note all the ruggedized JAN spec tubes with tube holders. Maybe SE with 5881 outputs?

Variable speed was handy when operating in the field with nebulous line frequency from gensets or the DC vibrator 60-cycle PSU.

I have several pieces of the previous portable PA/music systems, the AN/TIQ-20.

http://bunkerofdoom.com/mil/AN_TIQ2/AM-20_TIQ-2.PDF

D

I find it odd to see a Lenco turntable with that very pedestrian Astatic tonearm and cartridge.

Ken Doyle wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 5:32 pm I find it odd to see a Lenco turntable with that very pedestrian Astatic tonearm and cartridge.

Looks like the arm is long enough to accommodate 16" discs. There's a plug in the hole where the original arm would have been.

Chris Campbell

That amp looks like the old AN-TIQ-2 amp and turntable units we used as part of my infantry mech radio section. They had much older turntables but were made when tube sets were the current issue. They were the first audio equipment I worked on professionally.