Looking from the top down, the front-left offers a large, round play/pause button. To the right of that are small, rectangular dual select speed buttons. Moving across to the right-hand side, you’ll find a power knob that sits on top of the light for the strobe. At the far right is a pitch slider. This proved to be very useful, because the speed was not accurate out of the box. I needed to fiddle with this slider (which I saw as nothing but a speed ‘pot’ in operation), in conjunction with my RPM rotational speed app on my iPhone. An app which is a lot better in performance terms than you might think, at least when viewing certain negative comments on the Internet. It’s actually pretty decent and helped me to configure the speed of the Lenco. I believe Android offers a similar app, although I’ve never used that variant. The next process we put in place was to see how cheap you can get products in the Turntables category and also just to see how expensive they can get too. This actually means that LENCO L-3808 Direct Drive Turntable is above average against this average price. Bass now had a more organic and rounded structure, almost 3D in their presentation instead of the 2D, flat canvas effect from the Lenco. It can play both 33rpm and 45rpm records as you'd expect, plus it has pitch control, which allows you to adjust the speed by up to 10 per cent. Thanks to a USB output you can also save your vinyl records in digital form, using the free software from Audacity. You simply connect to your PC and away you go.

OK, there’s no quartz control connected to the direct drive motor here, so you can’t expect nailed on speed control but it ain’t too bad once you get to grips with the pitch adjustment. The 8-pole, 2-phase design does a decent job considering the price. Would have I liked to have seen the Lenco brand, full of tradition, retired to rest in vintage peace? Absolutely, sure. It is easy to think that Lenco L3808 Record Player is a poor-quality product. First, it is super cheap. However, it has all the qualities required to ensure that you get value for your money. The turntable originates from a Chinese factory, which might make some users question its quality. But this is not the case. In this review, we try to cover the basics of the product and help you decide whether it deserves a place in your living room.

In terms of sound quality the differences – and there were differences – were relatively subtle but they were present. The body of the model is made of gray plastic and rests on four spring-loaded legs that securely fix the player on any smooth surface. The device weighs 5.36 kilograms. In general, the turntable looks similar to many other models of similar design that have entered the market in recent years. Let’s see how it differs in terms of operation and sound. Gramofon disponuje integrovaným stereofonním předzesilovačem a kvalitní MM přenoskou. Přehrává v rychlostech 33 a 45 ot./min a je vybaven USB výstupem pro digitalizaci vinylů a propojení k PC.

More than that, after my own queries, it appears that this new iteration is an in-house Lenco design. According to the company who kindly answered a few of my questions, “Our design is always a close cooperation between our manufacturer’s designer and our product manager. With the L-3809, we started from the design of our popular L-3808 and asked our factory designer to create something more modern, different from several other models in the market…which all are very similar.” To do this we studied all 13 products that show up in the Turntables category at Currys PC World as well as the 7 from the brand Lenco. In some ways, this review of the L-3809 is a round-about sequel to the recently published Technics Ottawa f stereo system review in that the Lenco, like the Technics Stereo System reviewed previously, is a lifestyle product. If you're used to a more old-school record player, the L-400 can seem a little over-complicated at first. For starters, if you lift the arm, the turntable doesn't start spinning automatically, instead, you have to press the start/stop button. Similarly, at the end of a record, it doesn't auto-return, the record will just continue to spin. You have to manually lift the arm and replace it. There is no ground for use with external preamp - which gives off loud hum. The internal preamp is still adequate. There is clearly a noise-gate on board that will cut off during some silence.Then we thought we’d get a little more detailed and look at how many of the 13 products were more expensive or cheaper than LENCO L-3808 Direct Drive Turntable. All of these things, all of these apparent negative features are just an illusion. If ever there was a case to not judge a book by its cover, it’s the Lenco L-3808.