Platter Upgrade for Garrard 301

Not sure why you would think of the "new top of the line" Thorens (whatever that table may be), over all the other myriad of possibilities, in lieu of the Garrard 301. Perhaps I and others shouldn't have distracted you from what was a good idea of yours in the first place. The Shindo and Steve Dobbins platters must be very expensive, and so is the Australian product, if it's still available. I would suggest you forget all about platters and just get yourself an idler (preferably Garrard or Lenco) before you spend a great deal of money on another belt drive. If you are not happy with a well tuned Garrard or Lenco in a decent plinth, you can probably get your money back out of it and go forward with another belt drive at a later time. If the cost of a professionally made plinth for an idler is also daunting, then perhaps you'd want to build one for yourself, for starters. If you are partial to Thorens products, then go for a TD124. In any case, I encourage you to take the leap. BTW, a basic used Lenco is considerably cheaper than a Garrard 301/401 OR a TD124.

I have one of Steve's Garrard 301s with his custom platter. I compared Steve's platter to the stock Garrard platter, and found that Steve's platter noticeably lowered the noise floor and improved the high-end. I recommend contacting Steve. In addition to building the plinths and providing custom platters, he does a number of mods to the 301 itself, such as improving the bearing assembly, motor speed, etc. Also, his plinths have removeable armboards, so you can optimize the armboard material for you tonearm and change tonearm size without affecting the plinth. There's a bunch of stuff he does to optimize the unit for your particular application.

I have tried a lot with Garrards the last 18 years. When I tried the Shindo bearing and platter upgrade for the 301, I have to admit that I heard it in a non-Shindo plinth, so I guess I might have missed the system synergy. It is just that I preferred the musical presentation of the original bearing+platter in my setup. I love the Shindo SPU, though.

Before you change plinth or platter, consider the Kokomo bearing. I found that this is a very cost effective, but nevertheless effective improvement over the original to such an extent, that a Kokomo'd Garrard sitting in a DIY CLD plinth was preferred by the audience to a non Kokomo'd Garrard sitting in a slate plinth some month's ago at a local Munich turntable shootout.

best regards, Hartmut

Hello Hartmut,

Was that the shootout I heard about where you used stacks of magazines, periodicals, etc, to support the armboards to get the height correct?

Jonathan

I always felt that Garrard got the 301 right the first time. An audio buddy of mine says that the series 'one' platters (grease bearing tables) are the heaviest and to him sound the best. He has one matted to his oil bearing Garrard along with a 12" Audio Technica arm and a Denon 103. It provides an amazing presentation, and is dead silent. So... I am not sure that the Garrard really needs an upgrade... just having the table is an upgrade for most!
Enjoy.