Welcome to the Unofficial Kenwood L-07D Direct Drive Turntable Website Owner's Gallery Page

Owner's Gallery

This page contains photographs and reviews submitted by L-07D owners from around the world. If you own an L-07D, and if you would like to submit photos and/or a review for this Gallery, please contact me.

Picture Gallery

This section contains photographs submitted by L-07D owners:

A rare L-07D store demonstrator is shown above. Note that the top of the mahogany sub-plinth was stained to show the materials used in its construction.

An L-07D II shown above.

The L-07D shown above and below was displayed at the January 2004 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. This deck was spotted at the Hovland private booth. It was used to demonstrate the sound of Hovland products. (Photo above courtesy of Wally Malewicz.)

The two photos above show a custom-made Sub Arm Base, for use with an accessory tonearm.

Show above is a two-pound DIY inner stabilizer made from a scale weight that was carefully center-drilled to the spindle diameter, with the
bottom surface covered with a piece of Sorbothane. At the bottom of the photo is a DIY lead weight used by the owner to add mass at the cartridge end of the tonearm, by mounting it between the cartridge and the headshell.

Another rare L-07D store demonstrator is shown above.

DIY Repairs by Owners

Picture Gallery Continued

Owner's Reviews

This section contains reviews of the Kenwood-Trio L-07D submitted by their owners. This entire section represents only the opinions of the owner who submitted the review.

The following review was submitted by an owner in the U.K. on 10/26/2003:

The Micro I had was the DDX 1000. Although a lovely deck, there were a few things that annoyed me. Like most of the decks I've had, the strobo-light wasn't 100% accurate all the time. This is a common fault with these. Although the quartz lock was spot on it's a fault with the actual lighting circuit, which is unserviceable as it's encased in a casting. It just appears as the deck is running too fast, etc.

I've had Technics 1000 (SP10 MkII, EPA 100, Obsidian plinth, etc.), Michell Giro Dec/SME V, Michell Orbe /SME V, Well Tempered Super, Townshend Rocks in various forms, Roksan Xerxes/Artemiz/Shiraz, Linns, Oracles, Alphason Sonata, Pink Triangles, Basis 2000, VPI TNT, HW19 MK4, loads of Technics SL1210's, the newer Vestax decks, Souther Parallel-Tracking arms, Grahams, SMEs IV & V. Too many record players to mention, I've lost count. I've been trying different decks out for about 20 years and never found one I'm really happy with until the Trio L-07D came along.

I've found that turntables are either built really well but sound terrible or sound great and are built poorly. I've always loved the Technics SL1210 for build. I don't think any other deck comes close to the feel of it. Big aluminium start/stop, nice platter etc., but so-so sound. I did experiment and built a SL1200 with a SME IV just for my own amusement, which was nice for a while.

The Well-Tempered is my only other recommendation, but again (in my opinion) very poorly built (MDF wood chassis), but a fantastic sound especially with the Dynavector cartridges.

In my opinion, the Michell Orbe/GiroDecs sound awful!! I've had about six Giros and two Orbes, they've all sounded rubbish to me. There is a lot of press hyping these decks up, but I wouldn't recommend them at all.

This is why I've hunted down a L-07D. Great build allied with great sound! It loses a touch of precision when compared to something like a Basis with an arm like the SME V, but it can boogie with the best of them and you can forget about any small differences when it's such a beautiful deck with simple instant START/STOP, pushbutton 33/45. I love mine and wouldn't trade it for anything else now that I've got it.

The L-07D arm is easily as good as a SME V. I would say in a different way, but that’s not the whole story, it's the build!!! It's a monster; the only other arm which comes close is the big Dynavector DV505 or later DV507.

The SME V, I find, is a bit too analytical and you find yourself just listening to try and hear the last tiny piece of detail in recordings and not the actual music. The L-07D arm, although not as precise, lets the music build up and up in a very special way. It's the perfect combination really, and looks really special too. I guess from my ramblings you can see I'm pretty pleased with mine.

I would like to try a RX 1500 but they're pretty rare, also I would like a Nakamichi Dragon self-centering computer turntable but again almost non-existent. But for an everyday deck, the L-07D cannot be beaten!

The following review was submitted by an owner in the U.K. on 5/08/2004

I think the late John Michell was a very nice man who certainly refined his product over the years and I was a long term owner of the Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference which was the starting point for his range, but I don't think it's near `state of the art'. I am though, I think as a long term user of the non-suspended direct drive L-07D, prejudiced against suspended-chassis turntables, at least those of low mass with small motors. I think the owners of such turntables are in the reverse-way to non-suspended models. To my ears, they have a euphonic coloration in the 100 – 200 Hertz region (the Orb is an exception I think), which makes them difficult to live with (or without depending on your point of view). Also I think this would make it difficult to give an unbiased subjective opinion if you have been a long-term user of one or the other, something to bear in mind in any comparison, so reviewers beware!

Prior to the L-07D I have owned in order: Garrard SP25mkII then mkIII, Goldring GL75, Garrard 401 & SME 3009 arm, Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference with fluid arm & SME 3009II and Linn Sondek LP12 with Ittok & Syrinx PU3 (+mass ring) arm's. In the past I have also had long-term exposure to the Rega Planar 3 & Technics SP10. Only the SP10 & LP12 were considered `state of the art' in their day and of course the LP12 still is by some. The L-07D can (and did) easily see all these off, the only challenger for me at the time I purchased the L-07D was the very highly rated Oracle. In most ways the L-07D clearly trounced it but it did have a beautiful, delicate treble range, which I think was mainly accounted for by the wonderful Swiss-made Breuer 8 arm being used with it. I wonder what one of these would sound like on an L-07D?

A conversation on the Yahoo! L-07D Discussion Group on September 07, 2019 pertaining to L-07D history in the U.K.:

An owner wrote: “Not many Trio L-07D's were originally sold from new in the U.K. and most of them were sold either by Subjective Audio in London or Doug Brady in Warrington. She told me the seller had said it was previously owned by an Audio company. Harman Audio (UK) were the original importers and distributors back in 1981 when I bought mine. I remember they had at least two that they used as demonstrators at HiFi shows. I wonder if it was one of theirs. If so they had a good team of engineers in the U.K. Back then so probably did know how to service them and sort out most problems. I know they had problems with speed stability from new with a few UK units back then that they cured. If it was one of theirs I have no idea how long ago it was sold on to the previous owner and last serviced.”

I replied: “I once worked on a deck that was missing an R4 resistor on the rear connector PCB. I wonder if that had anything to do with what you wrote that I highlighted below?”

The owner replied: “Possibly? I don't know. I think there were a few problems with getting control units right for the UK with 240 volts at first though and Harman may have looked at them before sale. Mine came out of the sealed box and it was some years later when Richard of Vantage was here he said to me " Have you taken the cover off? It's on the wrong way round ". Ventilation holes on mine were towards the back with blank space to the front. I have left it that way as it worked fine for years and I quite often get 250 volts here.

Howard Popeck of Subjective Audio told me of one that took off like a rocket and was speeding on well past 45 RPM before he could hit the off switch to shut it down.”

Josie Lewis has posted an L-07D review on her fantastic website https://www.tannoyista.com/. Jo's L-07D has undergone expert repairs and electronic upgrades by Nick Gorham of Longdog Audio in the U.K. Nick's Longdog Audio website is https://www.longdogaudio.com/