Platter Upgrade for Garrard 301

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.

I do find the 301 platters ring. The original rubber mat is what I end using after trying modern alternatives, this helps a lot. What I have done recently to improve my 301 platter to add 3 x 5mm dia nitrile o-rings around the circumference of the platter. For strobe versions using 2 works well between the strobe markings. I made the o-rings from 88cm lengths of o-ring cord, this results in 28cm dia rings. You can buy ready made o-rings too.

Some have reported only subtle improvements from this tweak, in my SE and OB based system the effects were significant. Without it the sound seems slightly murky, rather like a slightly cloudy beer - still taste good though! Sounds with the o-rings are more distinct, less cluttered and more liable to "come from nowhere". Tight and controlled too. There seems greater stability (less smearing), the sort of thing you'd expect from a direct drive.