Considering selling my restored Garrard 301

Pretty cool. AF are a pretty smart bunch of guys with their choice of products and marketing.

FWIW, I have never purchased a thing from AF. I am not sure if you are applying the word "marketing" with respect or snark. They do have a glitzy website for a lot of glitzy drool-worthy products. I bought my LDA PS from another dealer (in upstate NY who told me he had been a good friend of Art Dudley's) and to support my TD124. I have a different PS feeding smooth current to my 301-one that I bought from Greg Metz who in turn obtained it from Ray of Classic HiFi that looks and is the same as this https://www.ebay.com/itm/204478352678?hash=item2f9bdc0d26:g:KP4AAOSwDSRcn64b&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0NUyKS920XH4XkVK2EJaAzgZYem5Ghd7J%2BaSAuSe882ILyZU17BDPohNLmtX%2FXQVZnpBqG95tKYi%2B9B8Gio6LoAxmzLcZqyrtmTGywHGFVvqa%2BgS7HVBGxxIzDYSe53scYDrrwq%2FJQvvxaLjvH8PJe%2F%2Flnqpj3ts1RrZV8usj1vxkEJ2iyb5a9n0xE80kAHgCtBm7TaLS2Qdv6SWC4hHHA%2BJn5KWBf7dnnBwbCDPiInaE1hsSuerieSaSGPT%2FM7q%2F4rw2ULf%2BbJoPoc46w6MgXg%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8TxoaSHYw

Before buying the LDA I tried to buy a second one of the Garrard-styled units linked above and Ray told me that he could no longer source them. In the eBay listing the box says "Made in England" but I recall Ray stating that they are actually made in Russia. 

@famoej 

That should be no problem and you will increase your signal to noise ratio. ID turntables were a necessity in the past because there was no other way to adjust the speed of the platter. All motors were AC and clocked the mains frequency. Then the AR XA came out and blew everybody's minds. A dirt cheap turntable that out performed all those ID tables. I owned a TD 124 a combination belt ID table with an SME arm and even without antiskating the AR XA was seriously quieter. People will tell you that if you upgrade these old turntables you can make them quieter and you can for a short period, but the rubber idler wheel develops flat spots quickly and the rumble starts and gets slowly worse. The other problem is every bearing makes noise, some less than others, but they all make noise. The more bearings you have the more noise you make and ID tables have two unnecessary bearings. With idler wear and multiple bearings you have a rumble machine. This is the reason belt and direct drives stole the entire market dumping these old ID drive tables, which were in the beginning very inexpensive until audiophile mythology took over. If you go to any modern belt or direct drive turntable with an isolation suspension built in or added you will notice a very significant drop in noise. Whether or not you can cover the expense by selling the Garrard depends on which turntable you are looking at. It is not going to cover an SME, Avid, Basis or Dohmann, but it might cover a Sota Sapphire which you can upgrade later with the new motor and drive. It does not matter what you do with a plinth for the Garrard. There is no idler wheel turntable that will outperform a Sapphire as it ages (that statement is going to be.....very popular :-) But, if I spend a billion dollars on a plinth, new bearing and idler wheel..... You still have a turntable with too many bearings and an idler wheel that develops noise almost immediately. Why do you think ID turntables almost became extinct? Why are there not any modern ID turntables with one or two exceptions. Are you telling me that Dohmann, Basis, SME, TechDAS and Technics could not build an ID turntable if they are so much better? Old ID turntables can make wonderful music, but they are noisy which is one of the main reasons many old preamps had rumble filters. With the advent of boosted subwoofers and digital filters rumble filters are becoming popular again. 

Now I am going to get ripped into tiny pieces. 

Do these things have a 60 hz option for US. power or do they convert 60 hz AC to 50 hz AC?

Larry, I had the same question. If memory serves, the Garrard motor was available either way. Yet the LDA is said to produce 50Hz. I saw no mention of a 60Hz option but I only scanned the website. I do know that 301 purists prefer 50Hz, which I believe is standard in the UK.

Mijo, true your TD124 had 3 bearings but how do you count more than 2 in conventional idlers? And by the way BD TTs also have 2, one of which is spinning very fast and more prone therefore to becoming noisy. I auditioned a TD124 and did find it had a coloration that I ascribed to its noise. Only the Lenco (after treating the platter and installing a massive custom bearing and replacing the structure) in my experience could be unobtrusive. (Everything has a noise floor. Nothing is dead quiet.)

The motors are all the same, but there are different pulleys for 50Hz and 60Hz.