Hi, here's a review from Gramophone magazine. I incude it here since the only widely available GL75/L75 review is the one at Hi-Fi news (1969).
Original source at this great website:
http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/November%201968/146/848651/TECHNICAL+REPORTS#header-logoI have took the liberty to highlight some parts.
Goldring-Lenco GL75 Turntable. Price: 05 15s. 5d. complete with L75 arm. P
linth with Perspex cover k10 18s. 5d.
Manufactured by Goldring Manufacturing Co. (GB) Ltd., 486-488 High Road, Leytonstone, London, E.11.
The Swiss-made Goldring-Lenco family of gramophone turntables occupies a special place in the world of high fidelity. They are precision made, good to look at and a joy to use. Earlier units have either been transcription types (e.g. G99, reviewed in February 1967) requiring a separate pickup arm, or medium price integrated turntable/arm systems (e.g. GL70, reviewed in December 1962).
The new Goldring-Lenco GL75 is an integrated unit but possesses all the virtues of a transcription turntable and
a quite sophisticated pickup arm, the L75 (which is also available separately price k12 6s. 5d.). The motor plate measures 15 by 13 inches and would be easy to install on a motorboard using the template supplied. The Goldring ready-made plinth and plastic cover avoids the need for home carpentry and looks well on a shelf or side-table.
The turntable itself is unusually heavy (9 lb.) and inspection of the underside revealed the tell-tale nicks which show that dynamic balancing has been carried out. This ensures that the flywheel action of the turntable will be uniform and keep down wobble (wow and flutter).
Drive is provided by a constant speed motor and the unique Lenco cone-shaped capstan which permits selection of any intermediate turntable speed. Sliding the speed control lever alters the point of contact of the idler wheel along the capstan (and also along a radius of the underside of the turntable) and hence the number of turns of the motor corresponding to one revolution of the turntable.
The set speeds of 78, 45, 33i and 16f rpm are easily selected by latching the lever into the appropriate stop. Each of the four stops is secured by a set-screw and a stroboscope disc is supplied as a check that the stops are correctly sited. Re-adjusting the stop positions takes only a few seconds. A generous sized on/off lever is situated just below the pickup head. A mounting spindle to fit a hole in the motor plate is supplied to take the Lenco-clean (reviewed in September 1967).
The L75 arm has all the features now regarded as essential to cope with lightweight pickup cartridges. The main counterbalance weight has a flexible coupling to reduce the risk of low frequency oscillations and its mounting hole is off-centre. This keeps the centre of gravity of the whole arm low and allows a measure of lateral balancing to be achieved (should the fitting of an extra heavy cartridge, for example, make this necessary). Playing weight is set by sliding a weight along an outrider rod which has lines engraved for each gram up to 5 gm.
Sidethrust compensation is by the familiar weight and thread arrangement. Since the correct degree of- compensation depends on both playing weight and stylus tip radius, the instruction leaflet includes a graph for quickly deciding which of the seven notches on the guide rod is to be used.
Hydraulically slowed lowering and raising is controlled by a lever alongside, and clear of, the pickup arm. The head shell is not particularly lightweight but includes a useful mounting plate which can be moved fore and aft to bring the stylus on to the precise position for minimum tracking error. A template card is supplied to simplify this operation-so necessary since the stylus and fixing holes on cartridges have no standard relationship.
Performance TestsA Goldring 800E cartridge was sent with the GL75 turntable for review and, as captive mains and phono plug leads are fitted, I was soon operational. I first checked the click stop running speeds with the stroboscope and these were dead accurate and unaffected by lowering the pickup. I also checked that re-setting the stops was foolproof. The stop and start operations were smooth and silent though some slight slip could be heard at close quarters.
Using a standard 3,000 Hz test record and meter I then measured wow and flutter. The claimed figure of 0.06% is getting near the lower limits of such measurements (even test records have some inbuilt wow) but
indeed just below 0.06% was the reading I obtained at both 33i and 45 rpm.
Measuring rumble is also a fairly imprecise art and the claimed figure of -60 dB (DIN) is almost incredibly low. I wonder if this is perhaps a misprint for -30 dB or -40 dB? However, I conducted enough tests to establish that motor
rumble was inaudible at all gain levels likely to be used in practice.
Pickup arm friction was remarkably low in both planes. The calibration of the playing weight outrider rod was accurate and the graph of sidethrust compensator settings produced the desired stationary playing of a blank disc for a variety of playing weights tried. Tracking error was less than 1.5° for groove radii from 21 to 54, inches.
cartridge together, I experimented to find the lowest playing weight which would still give good tracking (judged by ear and oscilloscope) on various gramophone records. The EMI TTF591 test record was tracked down to 1.5 gm and all bands of the Shure "Obstacle Course" record could be tracked at 1.25 gm.
This is a very good result indeed and would indicate that the L75 arm is as well designed functionally as it is in appearance.
The price of the GL75 turntable with arm (05 15s. 5d.) is by no means unreasonable for a precision instrument of this kind. Finish and stability are beyond reproach and
I should expect the life of the unit, except perhaps for fitting an occasional new idler wheel, to be indefinite. The GL75 is a true high fidelity unit without the fussiness sometimes associated with transcription turntables and arms. It deserves to reach a wide public.
