Lenco L76 on Kenwood KA-1200B and AKAI SA-1000 – Eric Clapton
Set-up
Lenco L76 Recordplayer
Lenco M100 element
Produced: 1974
Kenwood KA-1200B Stereo Amplifier(13W p/c @ 8Ω)
Not serviced!
Produced 1977
AKAI SA-1000 Speakers (60W, 8Ω)
Produced 1976
On Record:
Eric Clapton Unplugged – Old love
1992, Bray Studios
Visit us @ https://www.vintagefamily.nl for more details and availability
Special thanks to our son Leam for editing the movies!
Disclaimer: This video was shot with a simple mobile phone camera (nothing special), which influences the actual sound on display compared to the RL-experience.
Review:
First; the test-setup kinda worked a tiny bit against us :) A bit too much volume at close range might sound ok IRL, but filming it with a mobile phone does mix up the sound here and there.
We love this Lenco! Maybe it's because of the weak spot we have for the robust design, the chrome or the sweet workings of the idler drive. Or maybe it's the looks with the wood and heavy metal platter. Eitherway; these players can't go wrong with us and neither can this one. It plays really nice after having had a complete check-up and lub-job. The maintenance payed off; it runs nice and stable again. The element still picks up what it's supposed to pick up, but we think he might need a new cartridge any point next year.
The amp just got in and after some short testruns we got enthusiastic. We think it's good enough for some extensive testing so it's the base-amp for this testrun. And don't let the low wattage (13 wpc) fool you; this amp does the job with great ease. It produces a nice clear, yet warm sound , which is easily oomphed with the loudness button (which we don't like to use too much). One of the shortcomings if functional (regrettably). We really like the A+B function on our amps/receivers (like on the pioneer SX-series). Apart from that this is an easy amp that goes well with a lot of other components. Even unserviced a unit to fall in love with!
The AKAI SA-1000 speakers are the big brothers of the SA-800 we tested earlier. The 800s were delivering a really nice complete sound to our ears. This 3-way version was a bit of a surprise for that matter. The completeness is there, but it sounds like if the frequencies are more stretched and isolated. That works really good with the music-styles of the time they were produced, but (!) with more modern music it gets somewhat noisy on volume. It might off course be the agreement between these speakers and the amp, so we might try it out on a somewhat more powerfull version later, but for now that's something of a downside. If you don't need to listen to more modern music (rap or house) these speakers are a really really good choice.
All put together a great setup for a moderate budget.