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How to pay for a Garrard 301?

Rockmeister

pfm Member
This is not an HP question, sry. How much to pay ofc...

Quite fancy a winter project plinth making for a 301, but first I need a 301.
Lots around, old, wrecked, decent, good, restored, and as new, but which route to try and how much to pay is my question. All advice welcome.
 
Just looked up the prices on ebay - wish I`d kept the one I sold for £25 forty years ago - it was £25 pure profit though.
 
Quite fancy a winter project plinth making for a 301, but first I need a 301.
Lots around, old, wrecked, decent, good, restored, and as new, but which route to try and how much to pay is my question. All advice welcome.

I’d personally go as good condition as I possibly could, but not restored. They are not hard to work on, but the more worn or tatty the more you need to do/more parts you need to source. My ideal would be one fresh out of an original owner’s estate and without a dust-bug mark. These days you’ll be very lucky to achieve that under £1k.

I’d avoid any that had been obviously modified, especially if anyone has “upgraded” the main bearing with one of the god-awful ceramic balls or whatever (they destroy the bearing shaft). Buy stock. Keep it stock. Just carefully clean, relube and maybe replace rubber parts (grommets etc) if perished. I’d not really want to take on a deck that wanted more than that and tatty ones are no cheaper once you factor-in a pro respray etc.
 
The market is oddly squashed, £1kplus for very tatty in need of complete overhaul to £1.5k for nice ready to run one.

The best I’ve had had the dreaded dustbug, and no matter what I did couldn’t get replicate the fade of the paint.

Don’t discount 401, they have an edge on SQ and are just as plentiful.
 
Two 301's passed through my hands. One, a grey hammertone, that I rescued from the local tip, I got for free; to this day, I regret selling it for next to nothing. Later, I acquired a white one, that sat up in the shed for ages & eventually, I sold it to Terry/Loricraft for £75; again, to this day I regret selling it. Now, I have a 401, that I paid £565 for on eBay; Terry serviced it and mounted it in one of his skeletal plinths. It's OK, but I'm not that keen on the open plinth from a looks point of view & I might remount it at some point.
 
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I’ve not discounted a 401, nor a Thorens (tho I prefer the Garrard aesthetic). My aim is to end up with a plinth that is sonically ideal for the deck (in exactly the same way that I made the cabinets for my 12 inch Tannoys to be sonically ideal, but aesthetically to my own taste. That is a very plain and painted finish.)
The deck I end up with will probably be the one most here enthuse over. My first proper hi-fi experiences were via a Garrard 301, and I have owned a Thorens TD150 in the past, so those were a starting point, although I am not sure that the engineering on the TD 150 is quite to the ‘last Deck ever’ standard that I am now looking for. Hence a 124. I’m just learning here, And first, what I am trying to learn is, if I sell my current deck and arm and cartridge, can I afford to buy a replacement, make the plinth, and add a suitable Arm and cartridge for that same money? Hence this thread.
 
I’ve had two 401’s pass through my system over the years, there’s no way I’d swap my Palmer for another 401.
 
Don’t discount 401, they have an edge on SQ.....

How would you describe that edge? And do you think the 401 lost something in translation, or do you think it sounds preferable to the 301 in all aspects? Would genuinely like to know your thoughts, I’m not being contentious.
 
The original Hi Fi News review suggested the 401 was better for hum at the expense of speed stability with mains voltage variation. Not much in it otherwise, if I remember correctly.
 
I’d really not obsess over the minor differences between the 301 and 401, condition is *way* more important at this stage in the game. At the time the 401 was considered an improvement technically, but build quality got a tad ‘British Leyland’ over the run, but it’s irrelevant. Wear to bearings, bushings, rubber components etc is exponentially more important. Just buy the very best example of either you possibly can.
 
This 301 minus the arm will be listed soon according to this seller...

s-l1600.jpg


Listed as this, atm...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/37370227...d=link&campid=5338728743&toolid=20001&mkevt=1
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
The original Hi Fi News review suggested the 401 was better for hum at the expense of speed stability with mains voltage variation. Not much in it otherwise, if I remember correctly.

That’s interesting - I have fully serviced versions of both and found the 301 to be rock solid as far as drift is concerned, whereas the 401 sometimes drifts a bit. Doesn’t the 401 motor produce less torque than the 301?
 
401 has a 12W motor vs 16W for the 301. 301 was designed to be able spin a 78 with a 10 gram pickup, this wasn't such a requirement by the time the 401 arrived as tracking weights has decreased.
 
That’s interesting - I have fully serviced versions of both and found the 301 to be rock solid as far as drift is concerned, whereas the 401 sometimes drifts a bit. Doesn’t the 401 motor produce less torque than the 301?

That was basically what they said, in reducing the hum from the 301 motor they worsened the speed stability on the 401. I remember what seemed like significant warm up drift on what is now my 401 when it was new but it hasn`t been used for thirty years so I will have to refresh my memory when I finally get it installed.
 
My 401 takes about a side to get stabilised, then seems to be rock solid, according to the strobe anyway.

I asked Audio Grail about having it serviced to try and sort it, and he told me that the BBC specs for transcription turntables advised to run them for 20 mins prior to broadcast, so I’ll live with that.
 
I know several men who worked at Garrard and in those days, Gerrard was a job for life with an enthusiastic workforce. Everyone of them to a man reckoned that the 401 was by far the best built model. The QA in particular was reputably of the highest, if not ludicrously high, standard.

I am "lucky" in that I prefer the looks of the 401 and have owned one for over 30 years and have never had a seconds regret in buying it. It is a keeper.
 


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