I have finally done it: I have made the Garrard 301 (grease-bearing) the equal of the Mighty Glass-Reinforced Direct Coupled Giant Lenco!! More than once I was ready to throw in the towel and either declare defeat, or actually try a low-mass approach in the thought that perhaps the Metaphysicians (who said high-mass destroyed Garrard-PRaT and that birch-ply was the only material for Garrards) were right!!
But logically, what works for the Lencos should work for the Garrards, as what more than anything made the Lencos (and other idler-wheel drives) Supreme (in a world of ball-less belt-drives and antiseptic DDs) was de facto, in practice, actually playing a record, speed stability. High mass further improves speed stability by nailing the Lenco to the planet (and the higher the mass the bigger the nails), and also, via Direct Coupling, by reducing the background noise to an empty inky blackness. PRaT, which is Pace, Rhythm and Timing, and gestalt (all of the musicams coming across as One, as they should, rather than the vivisection practiced by many belt-drives), are all a function of speed stability. If the platter revolves at a precise and perfect 33.33 RPM while playing the record, then the PRaT and gestalt should also be perfect (assuming a perfect tonearm and cartridge in this respect and so on...). High mass storing energy and releasing it over time to damage timing was a myth put forward by the belt-drive camp to explain why high-mass BELT-DRIVES were often poor at PRaT. The real reason was that high-mass belt-drives have high-mass platters, and high-mass platters cause the belts, which always react, to react slower due to momentum, at a lower frequency, where timing resides (1-2-3-4; 1-t-t-t-two-3-4...).
So given all this, then the Garrard should have responded in the same way to the same recipe as the Lenco (even to the extent of sounding incredible with a birch-ply/MDF CLD recipe, which I still find to be the most neutral recipe, truthful, dynamic and extended at both frequency extremes, if not romantic like Amazonian Kerfafala-wood, or African Gnu-lumber), and finally, it did. It is now, as well as the Lenco, a Destroyer Of Worlds. I learned in the process that the Garrard HATES rubber mats (in fact, rubber anywhere at all), and responds incredibly well to Spotmats (which the Lenco hates). Different design and metals in the two platters, as well as different main bearings, and pretty well everything else, excepting the idler-wheel systems they share (and even so with differences) explain their different reactions to different mats.
Are there sonic differences between the two? It's hard to say, but if pressed at this early stage I would say the Garrard sounds BIGGER, like a widescreen cinema, as in everything is processed through a fish-eye lens to bring the midrange forward. But in addition to this, the soundstage seems bigger too, with shortened depth next to the Lenco, which in its turn is more lazer-focused and precise and perhaps a wee bit less dramatic, though this depends on the recording I think (some types of/recordings of bass come across with more impact via the Lenco, others via the Garrard). But this could be the mats, or something else. More comparisons in the months ahead, hopefully I will be able to do a comparison of same tonearm/cartridge into same phono stage to nail things down. But in the meantime, I am happy to report the Garrard will be sharing playing time with the Lenco in my system, and I couldn't be more pleased, especially as it was the humble Garrard SP-25 which convinced me long ago that the idler-wheel system was quite simply the superior system, and once I discovered that there was such a thing as a bigger Garrard, and most especially the fabulous Beasts the Garrards 301 and 401, I began to dream of finding one and owning one, but one never came up back then, and instead I found a Lenco. Idler-Wheels rule!!!
So tonight I am once again captured by my stereo system which won't let me go, even to the extent that Kraftwerk held me rivetted to the seat, breathless, waiting for the next electronic flourish to slam across the soundstage against a pulsating and DEEP electronic bass foundation. Viva la Idler-Wheel!!
