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Garrard 401 service + plinth

R

Rutteger

Member
First post here, so hello.

Have a Garrard 401 c/w sme arm which has been in the family from new but rarely used and in and out of storage for the past 20 years. Recently rescued it from the workbench in father's garage.

It came to me with some quad kit, the long term aim has always been to get everything serviced and setup together, however real life as is often the case gets in the way.

Have a project debut setup currently, a renewed interest in playing some of my old records has started thoughts of an upgrade. One obvious path would be the press the garrard back into action complete with new plinth.


Can anyone recommend someone for service and to ensure everything is setup properly? Have seen someone in Birmingham mentioned (which is local to me) without any actual contact details.

Secondly any recommendations for plinths? Anyone used the Moldovan plinths from ebay?
 
As a fellow 401 owner i'd recommend Dom at North West Analogue for service and a slate plinth.
 
The Moldovan plinths are fine. I have a ply one that suits a 301. A friend got the hardwood veneered version and it is lovely.

Very good vfm
 
Simonms said:
Hi,

Have a chat to Matt at Audiograil, encyclopedia of all things Garrard.

Cheers,

Si.
Click to expand...

I'll second that recommendation. Extremely helpful guy who I think knows more about Garrards than just about anyone (inc. Loricraft!).
 
RE: Servicing,
We reached an impasse with private client restorations about 18months ago. The issue was mainly due to a few trade clients sending 'batches' of units for complete restoration which rather strained our ability to work on our own units reserved by private buyers and for public sale. We were forced to make some decisions which resulted in the cessation of our advertising for trade and private restoration work.
In January we reviewed this decision and have taken on a few restorations privately. I hope we can continue to offer this on a limited basis.
 
Thanks for further info.

Still considering options on this one including going down the DIY route.

Out of interest has anyone tried the DAS Acoustic plinth

tn_1464203377.jpeg
 
Next query in this possible project is now which way to go with arm and cartridge. Have a SME 3009 ii improved non-detachable headshell with a FD200 fluid damper which i'd use with the garrard. Cartridge wise have Ortofon VMS20e ii fitted and Shure V15 type II with a broken stylus spare. Both are at least 35 years old, guess more. Seen conflicting advice on using older cartridges, is it worth getting new a new stylus for either or would I be better going with a new cart?

As a more general point in two minds about re-comissioning the garrard currently. Wonder if I might put the money into a mid range deck like a rega planar 2 /3 which I'd hope would give a sound improvement over the project debut I have currently and save the garrard for another day when I have a bit more time for such a project and the tinkering I'm sure it would involve (if this is the right place to ask such a question!).
 
upmarket and very much better styli are available for the Shure, i use th M75 body as its easy to get styli for te 78rpm discs

on vinyl the improved modern styli ... cant recalll the name as im not with the deck just now but its American ...is astounding compard to the original Shure styli and blows cognoscenti away which is always fun

good luck
 
Had Rega (3 & 25) for may years though not heard the latest versions; then for a couple of years Thorens TD150 & LP12 too, also SL-1200 for a while. But I prefer the 401 (with a Mission arm and AT33 PTG) to all of those. Deffo worth sorting it out!
 
stevec67 said:
Don't waste your time with a P2/P3 if you already have a Debut. Fix the 401 for a proper deck.
Click to expand...

Seconded.
Rega P2/3 vs. Debut would be a plain sideways move in best case..

An alternative to a cost intense 'all inclusive' restauration,

would be to check for the centre bearing being ok, correctly lubricated and in a state it is supposed to be & then, after making sure you cannot ruin anything,
try to get it alive yourself again.

We also have some guys in the forum capable of creating a nice plywood plinth,
DiveDeepDog for instance, among others..

So I think getting this old beauty alive again doesn't necessarily have to cost a fortune.. :)
 
I had a well specc'd LP12 i owned and upgraded from new for about 20 years (Armageddon, Sole, Ittok etc). I was knocked out when I bought a 401/SME 3009 and ran it alongside.
The LP12 was subsequently sold and funds reinvested in a slate plinth.
The 401 offers great potential!
Mark
 
Hi Mark..
sorry I missed out the analogism of the diving-scheme in the names.

Did you go for any plywood plith before going for a slate model ?
Do you think it's an improvement over ply in total ?

I have no idler running yet and hence no xp personally,
but reading through a plentora of various comments of users of DD & idlers with
slate vs. ply,
between the lines I heard comments that slate, while being rock solid, seems to add something to the tonal fine balance and not all of the users seem entirely happy with that kind of light 'accent'.

In direct comparison, from plywood plinth users, I have yet to hear anything of that kind of comment, literally not one.
To me this total silence about even small possible negative influence on the tonal character, says a lot in itself.
The plywood guys just appear happy and hence quite silent for the most part.

That said, I have no clue about trains actually,
I am merely having my ear on the rails up to now.. :)

Regarding the LP12, I have no doubts about your experience whatsoever.
Heard that far too often to believe those could all be plain wrong.

I like both decks, also the LP12 from an aestetical and sentimental point of view.
Both decks are great characters on their own and as such, to me the LP12 does not have to compete with an idler.
That's provided you can or like to keep and have more than 1 deck at a time,
if not, different topic for sure.

I'd agree though the 401 is up there in the lead of what is possible today
if cared for accordingly, in my book.

With other competitors claiming the same thing I am less sure.. :)

Kind regards,
T
 
p.s.:
A user named Helen did some quite sophisticated comments about the advantages of different plinth materials lately,
don't remember where it was now, but despite I lack pro knowledge in that field,
the comments appeared well informed if not great expertise.

There seems to be a certain 'frequency absorbing coefficient' to each material as a simple number to compare.

While some comparisons she offered seemed to be 'common knowledge' in loudspeaker building and elsewhere, for a good parts simply comparing the numbers
quite supports her theory.

Whereas with certain materials, lately people seem to entirely ignore the numbers and go with a specific material bc it is kind of a 'fashion' going on.

One example was Corian, which, according to her had worse numbers than acrylic even.

Just the acrylic fashion is over a bit & people seem to 'feel' Corian is something solid.
+ it looks appealing.
Fashion over and looks or not, if acrylic ever was better in that number than Corian and the numbers mean what she suggested,
then this won't change with time probably.

Sorry for the far way around,, but her comments reminded me of the slate vs. ply topic again.
If the plywood plinth takes the vibrations from the deck and leads them on, absorbs them, then the deck will be running calmer sonically.

If the Slate plinth is rock solid, but does not accept taking any vibrations, then the vibrations would be reflected back into the deck and have it,,,maybe suffer something like a light ringing ?

In this case the deck would ring and the plinth was silent,
it would be better listening to the plinth than the deck, basicly.. ? :)

No offence & no experitise...mind you.
Just a few of my amateurish thougths.
 
I have a Garrard 401 (Loricraft skeletal plinth/Naim Aro/Dynavector XX2MkII/Naim Pre-fix).

I also have an LP12 in the office (Cirkus/Kore/Lingo/AO 250/Dynavector DV20XL)

Along with a Lenco 88 (Audiomods/Metal bodied DL 103) in a slate plinth.

So I have a degree of experience here.

The 401 plumbs the depths of bass that the lp12 does not and the LP12 sounds a bit soft in comparison.

It took me quite a long time to get the Lenco to sound the way I wanted it to sound, and I put this down to the slate plinth. Mine is a slate plinth on an aluminium frame and I found that some cork strips between the plinth and the frame and a glass platter mat topped with a Spotmat improved matters no end, but I still think that if I fitted an MDF plinth of the same thickness, it would be better still. It is because the slate has too much mass to be able to effectively ground the vibrations and so just reflects it back into the turntable; the result can be a grey, overly damped and smeared sound.

This is a very heavy turntable, but thus tuned, as described, does sound very good.

The idler decks do have an instantly noticeable fast and snappy sound quality, presumable due to the lack of a lossy belt.

Having said all of that, I do get a buzz from my Michell Hydraulic reference too, but that is different because it has the damping trough which must have a smoothing effect on the rotation of the platter.

All of this, of course, is IMHO.
 
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