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.

lalitk

@noromance 

I didn’t find anything else on Storyville Label that I couldn’t live without :-)

As I mentioned above, I run genuine, old, Telefunken ECC803S tubes in my phono stage.  These take the Telefunken clarity and dynamics even further out to the extremes than the ECC83 tubes.  I like them in my system, but I don’t think they have universal appeal.

If I were to pick a tube as being universally good and likable by everyone, it would be a Bugleboy.  These are on the warm side, but, they have good clarity and are lively sounding.  I don’t know of anyone who hates their sound.

@larryi  As you know, you could buy ECC803S for £6.95 each back in the 80s. Now they’re over $1000 each NOS.

Limited, and not growing supply (Chinese fakes don’t count), and high demand did  that to the price.  I’ve had mine for many years and they are still going strong.