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That little thing was the bearing. The original Lenco bearing was far from a flimsy but did leave room for improvement. Don’t forget that the PTP line of turntables originates from a DIY hobbyist background. Audiophiles (M/F) are known to improve/tweak/mod/change their equipment faster than they change shirts. DIY enthusiasts among audiophiles are in the top league where mods and tweaks are concerned. A lot of modification can be made by enthusiasts. When it comes to high-tolerance machining, more professional assistance is needed. Fortunately the DIY communities are populated with members of a broad variety of skills. A common thread is a willingness to share their skills and forthcoming products.



Some are so skilled and resourceful that they will even set up a company to fully cater to the DIY community. Some are even more resourceful and attract customers from well outside the DIY realm. Given all of that, it was no big surprise that PTP Audio would chase an improved bearing for their successful Solid line of L75-based turntables. Just as with the turntable itself, Peter kept all the original parts worth retaining. He only changed parts that would result in a true sound enhancement.


CNC machining today offers tolerances that at the time of L75 production Lenco could only dream of. Nonetheless Lenco did a terrific job. Most L75 spinning today prove it. Now Peter had the housing and bottom cap machined at high tolerance from stainless steel. The tolerance guarantees leak-free operation. In the housing sit two sinter-bronze bushings. Sinter bronze is a mix of around 10% tin (Sn) and copper (Cu) ground up and later recombined again. During this process oil can be embedded due to the capillary action of the tiny openings in the bronze. The end product is a self-lubricating bushing for our bearing. At its base Peter placed a POM polymer thrust plate and completely smooth ruby ball. In the original Lenco bearing the thrust plate was made of a type of nylon with a steel ball.  Because the original spindle was excellent, it remains and now sits atop the new ruby ball. Total friction is less and the overall fitting has grown tighter. To complete his tight fit at the highest possible tolerance, Peter uses fairly thick oil.



He arrived at our place to install a Solid12 with the latest Thomas Schick 12-inch arm and Schick-modified Denon DL-103. Thomas adjusted his original long arm to accept a weight-operated anti skating facility. Yes, this runs counter to Thomas’ previous notions regarding the effect of anti-skating. In his reworked Denon cartridge the most striking item is the sapphire cantilever and needle conversion. In addition PTP Audio houses the upgraded DL-103 in a Midas aluminium body.


The Solid12 arrived with the original bearing mounted so we could witness the conversion personally. It took Peter literally 10 minutes to perform the entire upgrade. Here we must add that the tone arm was not yet mounted. A real-life upgrade would include the dismounting of the arm. After the upgrade the turntable with platter was put in its place and the tone arm and cartridge mounted. Next the assembly was leveled and calibrated with a starting stylus pressure of 2.4 gram and the lowest anti-skate setting possible. Preliminarily we ran with the included generic power cord. The unbalanced signal connection provided by the Schick arm ran to our Trafomatic Reference Phono One. Because the phono stage had been previously used with another DL-103 based cartridge, the input impedance needed no adjustment. In just 30 minutes we thus had a PTP Audio Solid12 including the Solid Bearing playing its first LP.