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Garrard 401 fun

David.
Interested in your comments on mats I have a collection including the Herbie which I found disappointing.I currently use a Loricraft cork on my 401 but the differences with all sorts of combinations were not great.
The cork adds a bit of life but even the stock mat is very good, if I had my time over I would just stick with it.
One thing I believe would really work is a something like a 3mm lead layer with the stock mat on top but not sure how to get one made to maintain the dynamic balance.
I have roller bearings under a 5 x 18mm marine ply plinth on a wall shelf, this seems to give complete isolation.
Great looking plinth by the way we should start a gallery on here.
Cheers Geoff
 
I've got a Loricraft cork mat and a modern reproduction of the original 301 mat, I think Loricraft made this too. It's the latter that I use as it looks nicer and it's much easier to get 7" and 10" records off as it has ribs. I A B'd them ages ago and couldn't tell a huge difference to be honest.

Tony.
 
gort,

Your design has me wondering about my 401/Jelco which is currently getting serviced. It will be in a new/old plinth, similar to the one I had made for my (now sold) 301 wihch you can see in the attached photo.

338850916_787832e8a2.jpg


I like you countersunk 401 so much, I'm considering a new plinth for the new year, where th 401 will be sat on a slate deck, and a wooden 'hood' may sit on the top which would accommodate the arm(s).

Right now I'm wondering about the mounting/interface of the wood top on the slate sub-chassis and whether I could incorporate some kind of 3 point rollerball/cone system. They would have to be small!

hd.
 
HD - that plinth sounds wild!

If the hood were on a roller, I would think that the ball cups would have to be machined into the slate - and the hood would have to be relatively thin to be the right height to align the cart properly. I would guess a bit too thin, as I would be worried about the resonance dampening of such a large, ~10mm thin board.

Why not have the slate jetted so that you inlay the deck and arm boards into it? I would think that would look stellar.

GWM - I dont really have a collection of mats, and haven't really tried a lot of them.

I used the stock ones on both my decks for a while and then tried the Herbie's cuz it was fairly inexpensive. I wasn't impressed with it by itself, so I tried it on top of the 401's stock mat, and I thought it sounded better. I read on VA about combining cork and sorbethane mats, so I cut my own cork mat and plopped the Herb on it - and was suitably impressed that I have let it be. I even tried the cork nude, but I still think the combo was better.

My mate has a Boston Carbon mat - maybe I will pinch it from him for a listen.

David
 
Oh, HD - I forgot to ask how you like your 401/Jelco combo?

I have been tossing about getting the 750LB...but I cant decide if I want it to queue jump some other projects - like my new speaker build! :confused:
 
gn,

It could be good! I was thinking of cutting relief discs into the slate and inlaying brass discs to aid but you're right - the top might be to thin, unless the slate is cutaway around the deck itself - say 35mm proud of the 401 top plate. Then the top wood plate could be thicker. But it's already getting complicated.

As to an all-slate design, while nice (cf. OMA), I prefer the Italianate look of black and (dark) tan in this case, as it offsets the colour of the 401 well. But that's just me.

As to the 401/Jelco - can't tell you yet! The chap who's servicing and having the slate cut is still at it. I hope to have it by Xmas. The Jelco 750L is lovely to handle though. Well made too. I'm awaiting a stainless steel cut SME tonearm riser plate and collar (machined to fit the Jelco). I hope to have it all back again by Xmas.


hd.
 
Im thinking of makeing a plinth out of three layers of perspex each about 10mm thick with self adhesive bitumin sheet between them for the main plinth sat on squash balls and the base solid perspex loricraft skeltal like wounder how it would sound ?
cheers
 
HD - I prefer to drink a black n tan myself :D.

But, I think your aesthetic idea is quite nice. If you were planning on doing a design that would accommodate arms of different lengths, then maybe it would be cool to have the armboards in wood, which would allow for ease of swapping arms without a trip to the stone mason! And then maybe some wood skirting trim to add some balance and weight to the slate?

Just thinking aloud...

Dougie - If you haven't seen it already, Blue Angel (from Vinyl Engine) did a perspex plinth, and is quite happy with it I think.

http://www.blueangelaudio.com/

http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/album_pic.php?pic_id=2839&full=true

"If I may make a shameless contribution here, that blue plinth is not completely without merit....I made mine from 5, stacked acrylic sheets - each sheet 10mm thick, bolted together in 8 places. Isolation is in the 4 legs and each leg is completely decoupled from the plinth. ...Inside each leg tube, are butyl rubber pads(the same material as cartridge dampers) and the corners of the plinth rest on these pads which are fitted to the top and bottom of each corner. Locating is by long 10mm s/steel bolts which does not touch the plinth corners anywhere...Looks OK and works well. Weight is 27kg. "

David
 
Gortnipper,

just want to say that's one of the nicest 401 plinths I've seen - well done! I really like how you've sunk the 401 into the plinth making it near-flush. It's similar to a design I planned out for mine earlier in the year. Then other commitments got in the way and the 401 project was put on hold until recently. Now it has a full Loricraft job and I'll see how that goes for a bit. I'd still like to go ahead and get my design made. Yours has inspired me - thanks!
 
Mignun (and all others as well) - thank you for the kind words. It was fun making it, and sometimes I wondered if I would ever finish it! Sometimes what I see is just the things that I would have done differently, or better - and, I won't even say what my wife thinks of it, despite likeing the wood. So, it is nice to see it well received.

The surface of the deck is flush with the top of the plinth. It is just the raised border of the logo panel that sticks up slightly

thanks,
David.
 
Chaps

I will be honest and admit I have never seen or heard a marble or slate plinth.

Terry O Sullivan has experimented with nearly everything and said he has not heard anything better than wood.

Regards

Mick
 
That's a very good looking spinner. I think countersunking the top plate suits the 401 a lot more than the 301.
 
Thanks Jaspert - I totally agree. I aspire to a plinth for my 301 similar to Tony's...or a Shindo style. Decisions, decisions...
 
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