Dig out your old vinyl and dim the lights
Lenco L-3809BK turntable
From €285 ★★★★★
Over the last couple of years, I’ve listened to more music than I have since I was a teenager. As well as new music, I rediscovered music and albums that I hadn’t listened to in years, thanks to the huge catalogue available on streaming services like Tidal and Spotify.
However, I still have much of my old vinyl collection so, for the last month, I’ve gone old-school.
The Lenco L-3809BK is a modern turntable that plays old or new vinyl – but comes with new smart tech. The record player includes a good quality cartridge, the AudioTechnica AT3600, and accessories including a felt slip mat, dust cover for the unit and a 45 TPM adapter. This thoughtful inclusion helps you play 7” singles if you still have some in storage.
I’LL USE THIS TO DIGITISE MY OLD VINYL COLLECTION
Lenco makes a range of turntables, some retro and all-in-ones with speakers, but the L-3809 has an interesting, novel feature – a direct-drive turntable, which has built-in strobe lighting effects and a cool, zesty DJ feel.
The desk itself is well-made, stylish and has various options for connectivity, as well as the power cable input and a manual on/off switch.
There’s a pair of RCA phono outputs, which you could connect to a phono or integrated amplifier. Beside these is a small switch to select the line out or phono, which utilises the builtin Lenco phono amp.
There’s also a USB port here, which you could use to record vinyl music to a PC or storage device. Included in the package is a CD containing Audacity – an excellent, open-source software program that assists you with the chore of digitising your music collection.
Assembling the turntable requires some attention, but I found it an enjoyable part of the nostalgia. The platter has to be attached and the felt mat laid so your records don’t slip. The tone-arm is perhaps the most delicate part of the operation, but the excellent instruction manual helped to guide me through this part. The head-shell where the cartridge fits attaches to the tone-arm and then there’s a counterweight to be attached to the back of the arm. Set-up took me around 30 minutes, but with everything in place and the player steady and aligned level on my sideboard, I was ready to go.
Vinyl singles play at 45rpm, but it’s far more likely you’ll have old albums that play at 33rpm and on the top of the deck are buttons to change from one to the other. Also on the display is a play-pause button and a pitch-fader slider control, which adjusts the speed by a generous plus or minus 10%.
Using it is as straightforward as popping on a record, selecting the correct speed and pressing play. I had connected it to my integrated amp, and instantly the Lenco sprang into life.
There is a lovely warm sound and its mid-ranges were excellent. I have quite a few albums from the 1980s, but I used my new vinyl for test listening. New vinyl is heavier, about 30% more than records from the 80s are, and, being less flimsy, they perform better.
However, there’s even an antiskate feature here, helping to improve performance, which I think would be useful if you do play your old collection.
The DJ appeal was perhaps lost on me, as you would need two of these players and a mixer to get the best out of that sort of evening. However, budding DJs in your household would probably love that feature as they pursue their Fat Boy Slim dream.
Overall though, it’s a really good player. Pop and jazz sounded great and the amplifier connectivity options are an added bonus. I’ve promised myself that I’ll digitise my old vinyl collection this year, and this player gives me the tech and audio quality to do that.
However, before I get around to that, I’ll continue to enjoy this turntable, with my feet up and the lights down.