Lenco L-3808 matt grå digital USB-skivspelare

Price is as good a place to start as any - at a heavy discount over the "cool" white and "old school" black editions



(fluctuating from 156 GBP to 169 GBP and back again, vs. 199 GBP), the grey L-3808 is a bit of a steal. The grey is darker



than pictured, and with the bottom third of the main body (and feet) being black, and the lid a dark smoke, it blends with



other hi-fi equipment of varying shades anyway.



Let's talk about looks in general - detractors are bound to point out that it's just another cheap Technics 1200/1210 rip



off, with only the 33/45 speed buttons in a different position ... and to a certain extent they're right - if you read



"cheap" as excellent value, and "rip off" as "tried and tested layout/features".



Personally, I like the layout and wouldn't dream of buying a turntabe without a strobe and pitch adjustment, even if I'm



unlikely to ever use them in anger again. Physically, when compared against a 1200/1210 it feels a bit cheap and rattlely -



but that's not comparing like with like. Once you get you head past the inevitable comparison, it actually feels fairly



heavy and solid compared to anything else at a similar price.





To be honest, I hadn't bought from Bax before, and only pushed the button on this due to price. I needn't have worried



though, having bought on a Saturday lunchtime, tracking information was soon sent showing it had left from Holland &



arrived (via Parcelforce van) the following Wednesday.



The outer box (white & printed with the Bax logo & artwork in black and pink) had taken a bit of a kicking - quite



literally as well as some scuffs, scrapes and crumpling, there was a 50mm wide hole in it. Not a problem though - thanks to



the Bax box being well oversized and stuffed with air pillows, the Lenco box was fine.



The product box is, on the outside, fairly minimal with photos of the turntable & key features against a white background.



On the inside it's a pair of expanded polystyrene forms with everything else hidden by a semi opaque polythene bag. A label



indicates you should grab a big handful of the latter and pull to remove from the box, but I found the fit so tight a



second person and gravity assistance was needed.







Once out, you'll find a felt slipmat, cast alloy platter, 45rpm adaptor, counterweight, headshell (with cartridge, stylus



and stylus protector prefitted), lid, manual (plus software CD, interconnects & USB lead) as well as the main unit itself



are all separately bagged/covered with thin foam, and taped to the polystyrene forms. All the parts seem robust, and



heavier than I'd expected at this price point. Looking at the main unit though, it's evident that the plastic upper deck is



used across multiple models, with an unused 240/110 voltage switching void, unused belt drive clearance loop, and a rather



disappointingly small sticker blanking off the void where the motor would come out, if it were a belt drive turntable.



Assembly is straightforward (note that the lid is potentially quite finger-snappy when closing), however the tracking



weight setup is a little tricky, so to expand on what the manual says:



- push the counterweight all the way forward on the shaft. You can ignore the position of the plastic scale portion, as



long as it's facing forward;

- with the headshell, cartridge and stylus fitted (and with the stylus protective cover removed), make sure the lowering



lever is all the way forward, and the tonearm is clear of the support/clamp;

-ignoring the scale, twist the metal part of the counterweight backwards until the tonearm is balanced level. I found there



was some drag in the pivot, so jiggled the tonearm up/down a little and made adjustments until it consistently returned to



level;

- tracking weight is now set at zero, so you can go ahead and rotate the plastic scale (WITHOUT moving the metal portion)



to show zero (i.e. "0" uppermost, in line with the white marker line on the shaft);

- to adjust the tracking weight, hold BOTH the scale and the metal weight at the same time, and rotate BOTH as the same



time until the desired weight is shown;

- set the anti skate force to the same figure.





I found that at the recommended tracking weight of 2g, records played fine, but the tonearm tended to fly uncontrolled



across the lead in to each side, and especially across the dead wax at the end of the side - and up on to (and across) the



label. So not "fine" really. Increasing it to 2.25g didn't improve matters, but upping the tracking weight to 2.5g did.



After a bit more experimentation, I was able to reduce it very slightly to 2.4g without problems, obviously the lighter the



tracking weight, the better.







Sound output is a little quieter than my previous back bedroom/budget turntable (an elderly Technics SL-BD2 with OE cart &



generic Japanese stylus), though I haven't tried using the "Line" level output on the back on the offchance that the built



in preamp on the turntable is better than that built into my (Pioneer) reciever.



On the plus side, the sound is well balanced between bass & treble ends of the range, and overall better than you might



think for the price - one of the first records I listend to on it was Schoolly D's "Somewhere In The Land Of No Rap" (aka



"The Yellow Album" or regarded as eponomously titled) from 1986 - a sparse sound in a genre/period known for sparse sounds



- and actually heard some subtleties I hadn't heard before on other setups. I have to admit I'm on a bit of an old skool



Electro & Hip-Hop jag at the moment, but just about everything else I've thrown at it (Folk, Country, various flavours of



Rock, pop from the 60s through to the 80s, Ambient, Skiffle, Comedy/Spoken Word etc) has been a clear and involving listen,



even if the material was well outside my usual comfort zone. If fact, the only thing I've tried so far that has been a bit



meh/underwhelming was a 2016 heayweight re-press of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon", but I suspect that's got more to



do with me having gone off it (mentally filing it under "unwanted gift" - or even "a bit wanky") than the quality of the



recording.





Despite the lack of a grounding wire, no hum was evident on playback either through a conventional Deck -> RCA



interconnects -> Amp -> Speaker setup, or playing through the USB cable through Audacity running on a PC.



If you haven't used Audacity before, let me tell you that it's a slightly ropey, but free and surprisibly powerful way of



playing records through your PC, recording them, correcting obvious pops (and crackle, if you're willing to spend the



time), splitting sides up into tracks, and exporting them into tracks of pretty much any recognised audio format, with



varying degrees of compression. MP3 files are the most obvious, portable and widely compatible format - but a word of



warning, at "standard" compression, MP3s loose a lot of the immediacy, clarity, subtlety (and other words ending in -y ;) )



compared to the original turntable output - so you might want to upgrade your thinking about which format to use (or at



least the compression rate).







Anything else ... on the plus side, the interconnect leads are separate with RCA plugs on the back of the unit (so are



easily upgradable), whereas on a lot of "budget" units they tend to be permanently attached internally (so called "flying



leads"). On the minus side, the mains lead is of the "flying" variety, is a bit thin and inflexible, and terminates in a



moulded on, two prong Euro type mains plug, necessitating the use of an adaptor (Bax provided a tidy one - for free, to



their credit).



The strobe light is aimed very heavily towards the 60hz bands on the platter, which is distracting and unhelpful if you



live in a 50Hz country like the UK ... at some point I'll look at the (warranty voiding) possibility of changing the aim,



in the meantime I'll live with it, or more likely put a bit of black tape over part of the strobe housing window. (N.B. -



some genuine 1200/1210s are a bit shabby in this regard too).



The pop up "target" light isn't that great either, gaining full height with a "Thump" that reverberates the top deck, and



through your speakers. The actual light output is a bit feeble, yellow and not very well aimed either.



There's no 78rpm setting (although a 78 stylus is available for the cartridge) - this might be a problem if you're A) 120



years old, or B) wanting to digitize great-great-grandmother's collection.





These are all minor criticisms though - the questions really should be "does it sound good?" (yes) and "is it robust



enough?" (again, yes).



Considering the price, 9 out of 10 & would recommend it :L





Plusses :

- Looks quite good

- Sounds very good

- excellent value

- USB connectable

- RCA sockets

- well built (mostly) / heavy for the price

- Phono/line level switch (i.e. built in preamp)



minuses

- flying mains lead

- doesn't do 78s

- some cost saving measures a bit too obvious

- not a straight out of the box experience, tracking weight in particular needs careful setting up







TL;DR ("too long, didn't read" version): Grows on you. Very good for 200 GBP, an absolute steal at 156 GBP.

I bought this for a Christmas present to myself as my 40 year old garrard deck had just been consigned to the great scrap heap in the sky, this is an amazing piece of tech, I have it linked up the JVC UX-150 valve micro hifi with 75w per channel speakers, the sound is so crisp its mind blowing, I am a self confessed audiophile and this does not disappoint at any level.

it's a must if you want a decent direct drive deck and are on a budget!

Please can someone help me out - I ordered the turntable with the impression it was easy to set up but I cannot get it to work for the two months I have had it now. I cannot get the plate to spin around (?!) and therefore no music to come out. It also makes a noise if I manually spin it around and I can't get it to continuously spin around. The item didn't come with a belt so I bought a correctly sized one but I can't find anywhere for it to hook to... What am I doing wrong? Right now it just sits in my room, if someone could please tell me how to fix it.. I emailed customer support and they told me to send it back but I am past my 60 day return limit. Someone help/explain please!!

As the turntable was recommended as a Best Buy by Which? I decided to purchase from Bax on the basis of the recommendation and price.

Service from Bax was first class. Turntable was very easy to put together and connect to a recently purchased amp. Looks and feels a good quality turntable. Straightforward functions and the sound from my old LPs seems very good. Still in trial period and not used sufficiently (with new amp)to give 5 stars but so far no regrets or hesitation in recommending both Bax music and the Lenco turntable.

Looks and sounds good, but it feels a tad flimsy, although it's good value for money. Also, the hinge for the lid is a bit too springy, and it can make the needle jump if the lid is opened while the needle is still on the record. The tone arm doesn't lift very high when the tone arm lever is used, so it's a bit too easy to scratch the record when taking the needle off it. The tone arm also isn't oil-damped. Maybe I'm just a bit spoilt by my much-loved, recently-deceased Technics SL1800 - which I had for nearly 40 years, but it was then comparatively much more expensive than the Lenco.

Well reviewed by Which? magazine and rightly so. This is a well-made deck that performs well. The price form Bax was also very appealing.

Well reviewed in Which? magazine online. I wanted a good quality self-sufficient record player to play old LPs. This only requires speakers which I already have. Recommended by other reviewers as above.

Uitstekende platenspeler voor een aangename prijs. Was op zoek naar een goede platenspeler ter vervanging van mijn Philips speler uit 1972 waarvan de snaar te slap werd. Deze speler heeft direct drive, is - ondanks de kunststof behuizing - zwaar en stabiel. eenvoudig te monteren en te installeren en hij doet het uitstekend. Stroboscoop instelling is erg handig en de het lampje voor de positie van de naald op de plaat is een leuke toevoeging. Kortom: een aanrader!

Super platine vinyle avec pré-ampli qui s'intègre aisément dans une chaîne hi-fi.Très bonne restitution sonore avec de bons haut-parleurs connectés à un ampli. Pas besoin de câble gnd. Le rapport qualité/prix est formidable. L'encodage usb est un plus que je n'ai pas encore testé.

Simpel en degelijke platenspeler. Prijs - kwaliteit dik in orde

Dit is mijn 2 de die ik aankoop, gelijk nen echt dj.

De laatste die ik heb gekocht gaat de arm niet altijd naar beneden.

Soms ( ong’ 40 %) moet ik op de arm een klein beetje drukken en dan gaat hij naar beneden.

Voor de rest is het prijs kwaliteit, een goede platenspeler.

Salve,una domanda,in questo periodo se possono fare dei ordini??oppure arriverà il pacco?

Ik heb deze geweldige platenspeler sinds maandag en ben er zeer tevreden mee.
Makkelijk aan te sluiten en mooi geluids overbrenging .

Totaal geen spijt van!

Zeer goede platenspeler die z'n geld meer dan waard is. Hij is van zeer goede kwaliteit en het is erg fijn dat je de naalddruk in kan stellen.
Enig minpuntje is wel dat hij geen autostop functie heeft maar hij loopt niet door tot het midden van de plaat dus dit is niet heel erg.

Na jaren de wens voor een leuke pick-up vervuld en geen seconde spijt! Zeer goede waar voor je geld en een echt fraai apparaat dat solide aanvoelt en duurder lijkt dan het is. Makkelijk aansluiten op mijn Marantz-receiver die geen phono-ingang heeft: gewoon de meegeleverde kabel naar een andere apparaatingang en de schakelaar aan de achterzijde van de draaitafel van phono naar line. Geluid is mooi vol en bevat alle details. Ik dacht alleen dat deze draaitafel meer vol-automatisch was. Je moet echt zelf de naald boven de plaat brengen en de arm met een hendeltje omlaag laten zakken. Ook aan het eind van de plaat geen automatische afslag: de plaat draait eindeloos door in de eindgroef, tot je de arm omhoog doet en terugbrengt en zelf weer op stop drukt. Mooie verlichting voor controle van het toerental dat je indien nodig of gewenst makkelijk aanpast met een pitch-schuif. USB-uitgang voor opnames en CD met (open-source) software en USB-kabel keurig meegeleverd - overigens nog niet getest maar een leuk vooruitzicht om naar PC te kunnen overzetten. Zelfs het adaptertje voor singles is meegeleverd en heeft een eigen plekje. We genieten van oudere en nieuwere platen - top aanschaf!

Een geweldig mooi product dat perfect functioneert.
Het enige nadeel vind ik dat de naald niet automatisch terug gaat naar de beginstand als de lp klaar is.
Maar buiten dat is het echt een aanrader.

Es el tercer Lenco que compro.Hace unas semanas pedí el Lenco L-3808 y me pareció una maravilla., digitalizando vinilos y oyendo a través del equipo de música, y pedí otro para mi hermano, que está encantado con él. El primer Lenco era el L-744-DD, lo compré hace 30 años y ha sido perfecto siempre, pero dejo de funcionar. La verdad es que le tengo cariño a la marca. Los habrá mejores, pero por el precio que tiene. no se le puede pedir más. Lo recomiendo sin lugar a dudas.

De Lenco L-3808 gekocht na contact hebben gehad met Bax-shop.
Zeer snelle levering
De draaitafel zier er heel mooi uit.
Deze diende als vervanger voor mijn oude HTE draaitafel,en ben er zeer tevreden over.
Heb er wel een Ander element in geplaatst(Ortofon)voor diepere bass en meer hogere klanken.
Makkelijk in gebruik en klinkt geweldig.
Ook een pluspunt is dat je deze door de sachakelaar aan achterzijde van draaitafel op elk gewenste uitgang van je versterker kunt inpluggen mocht je geen Phono uitgang hebben.
Kortom geweldig apparaat,
en zeer kundige en hulpzame mensen bij Bax-shop

goede platenspeler met prachtig geluid, ondanks de prijs.

De keuze tot de aanschaf van dit apparaat is gebaseerd op de platenspeler-test van de consumentenbond. Naar mijn inzichten kwam dit apparaat het beste uit de test zijnde de prijs/kwaliteitsverhouding, zie hiervoor:
https://www.consumentenbond.nl/binaries/content/assets/cbhippowebsite/tests/themapaginas/elektronica/tabel-platenspelers.pdf

Over Bax-music ben ik ook zeer tevreden, hierover heb ik ook een review geplaatst op Trustpilot zie hiervoor:
https://nl.trustpilot.com/reviews/58ac052df434950bc4fe14fa

Over het apparaat zelf ben ik ook zeer tevreden. Zelf kon ik nergens vinden wat voor naald er onder het apparaat zat. Maar dit is een diamanten naald (goedkopere platenspelers hebben ook wel eens een naald van saffier). Zie voor de specificaties van de naald:
http://www.pickupnaalden.com/draaitafelnaalden.asp?M=Lenco_L-3808_ATN-3600L_1652

Voorderest vind ik het geluid en het gebruiksgemak ook prima. (Tip: zet het knopje aan de achterkant van het apparaat van mono naar line) Ik zelf maakte hier een kleine fout omdat het geluid nog al zacht bleef tot ik dit knopje ontdekte. Indien uw het apparaat ontvangt zal dit knopje op mono staan, zet hem dan over op line en uw geluid zal een stuk beter uit de verf komen.

Het meegeleverde opname programma werkt ook ideaal, het is zeer gemakkelijk om te instaleren en te gebruiken. Hierdoor kun je je platen digitaal maken indien je dit wil.

Over het geheel gezien ben ik meer dan tevreden met dit apparaat.

Supermooie platenspeler, geeft goed geluid (mits je er goede speakers aan verbindt). Ziet er ook heel mooi uit en is simpel in gebruik. Dit is mijn eerste platenspeler ooit en hij bevalt tot nu toe echt super goed.

Het enige minpunt vind ik dat de behuizing van plastic is, maar verder is het een hele mooie eerste platenspeler.