For years the only Lenco Art Dudley of Stereophile had used was the one inside his record-cleaning machine, whose British maker built it around Lenco drive systems, bearings and platters. Then he played the Tony Rice Unit's Manzanita on a turntable built from reconditioned Lenco parts and heard "punch, drive, force, color, richness." He called it "wonderful." That drive comes from an idler wheel. In most turntables a rubber belt links the motor to the platter. In a Lenco a small wheel presses against the motor shaft and against the underside of the platter, so the motor's strength reaches the record through a firm contact. Lenco's motor shaft is a long, smooth taper, and sliding the wheel along it changes the speed smoothly, so the L75 can play at almost any speed you like. Dudley wrote that this kind of player was the only way he knew to get musical drive, so a Lenco idler suits listeners who put momentum and impact first.

Lenco's current turntables come ready to play out of the box. What Hi-Fi? called the belt-driven L-85 "the best budget plug-and-play turntable we've come across." Its cartridge comes fitted, a built-in phono stage lets it connect to any amplifier or active speaker, and a USB port records vinyl to a memory stick. The magazine called it a "My First Turntable" for kids and students. The direct-drive L-3810 is the step up, with a pitch slider and strobe borrowed from DJ decks and an Audio-Technica cartridge already adjusted. Simon Lucas of TechRadar found it "decently punchy and rapid." If your amplifier has its own phono input, a switch on the back bypasses the built-in stage, and Lucas suggests comparing the two. For the classic idler sound, the vintage route starts with a heavy-platter L75. Dudley called Peter Reinders's PTP Audio top plates "the gold standard in Lenco circles," and Wojciech Pacuła heard a Nomos rebuild with an SME arm deliver bass "better than any turntable at that price point."

In 1969 Pacuła had to choose between a Lenco L75 and a Thorens TD 150, and the shining chrome Lenco won his heart. Fritz and Marie Laeng founded Lenco in 1946 in Burgdorf, a small town near Bern, and Pacuła traces the company to Fritz's fascination with devices for sound reproduction. Dudley credited Fritz's engineering and Marie's business sense, and her idea of selling turntables through a popular book-and-record club is remembered as the company's turning point. By the late 1950s the L60 had the conical idler drive, the L70 of 1960 was the first Lenco considered a hifi model, and the L75 of 1967 became Lenco's most successful turntable. Its balanced cast platter weighed about 4 kilograms, and Pacuła notes that only the much more expensive Thorens TD 124/II had a heavier one. Dudley wrote that Lenco became one of the most successful and well-regarded makers of hifi turntables through the 1960s and early '70s, and he guessed total production ran well into six figures. Pacuła says many listeners still weigh a Lenco against a Thorens or a Garrard today.