Thank you for your recommendation. I will be slowly setting up cart trials in next 3-5 months. TT and Tonearm is here and now waiting on plinth. Pics are uploaded in my virtual system…so far both TT and Tonearm has surpassed my expectations. Visually stunning and extremely good build quality!
Garrard 301 - Project
I have been contemplating for a while which turntable to pursue given so many choices. Every time I look around, I just can’t help drooling over a fully restored Garrard 301 or 401. Aside from being an idler-drive, I keep reading and hearing about their unique ability to reproduce music with its sense of drive and impact thus making them very desirable to own. And with available meticulous restoration services and gorgeous plinth options, what’s not to like, right!
Would you please share your experience, good and pitfalls (if any) with a restored Garrard 301 to avoid before I go down this path.
And what about the IEC inlet and power cord, would they be of any significance. My two choices would be Furutech FI-09 NCF or FI-06 (G) inlets.
I have already purchased a Reed 3P Cocobolo 10.5” with Finewire C37+Cryo tonearm/interconnect phono cable with KLEI RCA plugs option.
Still exploring Cart Options, so please feel free to share your choice of cart with Garrard 301 or 401.
And lastly, I would like to extend my gratitude to @fsonicsmith, @noromance @mdalton for the inspiration.
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I've had a look at the Plinth and Arm along with the down stream system. This looks like it the venture is a result of a deep passion to bring Old Tech' into the World of working in conjunction with Modern Design. The Vinyl Source will be real eye candy 😎 Once fully established, with Cart's having a few Hundred Hours behind them from New. I suggest trying out a few other Platter Mats, it is quite a surprise what can occur as the result of using different materials, loaning is the easiest way to get samples to put to the test. |
You have a beautiful and well thought out system. Your 301 motor unit has been pristinely restored. I could re-read this thread from beginning to end to find out for myself but I will just ask-where did you source it? I am guessing Woodsong or Classic Hi-Fi UK. I am bit puzzled that you have a 301 motor unit and a 401 platter. To the best of my knowledge no 301 model was ever produced with a strobe lamp installed and only at some point after the 401 was introduced was a strobed platter offered as an option with a 301 during a short period in which both were in production, but again, without any strobe light retro-fit option. This is a minor detail of no significance; my own grease-bearing 301 has been Frankensteined with an aftermarket heavy duty bearing and a Dobbins platter as mentioned by me earlier in this thread. I will again warn you that mounting the 3P is a very difficult proposition if you have no prior experience. Why such an advanced engineer as Vindmantas Triukas would provide such a misleading mounting template with his arms is a mystery. I mounted my second 3P myself but I had to remount it a second time, moving the arm base slightly forward to get into the zone where a typical cartridge could be mounted at optimal overhang. The integral headshells offer rather short cart mounting slots which only aggravates the situation. In this respect that I agree that having rotating leaf type mounting shelves is nice, but at the expense of esthetics, stability, and freedom from unwanted resonance. And I will again highly recommend that you look into an outboard power supply designed for induction motors to smooth out the motor operation. |
I am still learning about 301 and long ways from the finish line. Why my TT came with 401 strobe platter, no idea. I can ask but It’s not important since I never heard a 301 before with a regular platter. I am hoping to establish a baseline with what I’ve got before I go crazy with available upgrade options including outboard PS. I pretty much asked my dealer to resource a high quality 301 rebuilt. Based on initial visual inspection, I am very pleased with the rebuilt by Grail Audio in UK I wanted this to be fun and a very special project. Something, I could possibly treasure and enjoy for years to come. With all the invaluable feedback from each one of you, I am feeling pretty confident….so keep it coming! |
The platter on @lalitk Garrard 301 is a 301 strobe platter. The 401 Strobe platter is different - it has an indent in the centre about the size of the record label.. The 301 strobe platter was an extra cost upgrade in the last years of the 301 production. The only downside of the 301 strobe platter is that it is slightly concave, which means a hard mat such as copper, graphite etc are only supported at the edge. On my 301 I had the 301 strobe platter machined flat so that copper mats were fully supported over the whole surface.
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