advertisement


Garrard 401 vs Gyro Deck

packtech

Ex band member twice.. :)
I have just spent the last 3 nights getting my old (now sold) GyroDeck/Rega 250/Benz MicroGlider set up properly..i.e...Straight up/down bounce. What a royal pain in the arse that was. The old springs meant that just getting everything absolutely level is straight out of the window, trial and error is all that was left but I finally did it for my neighbour..!! So I took my Garrard 401, Mayware Formula 4 Benz microglider round to trash the pants off it..and it wasn't an thrashing at all, far from it. Sure they both sounded different and most of it I can say would be the Mayware on the Garrard, but all in all it was quite close. We both preferred the Garrard on some music and the Gyro on others. The Garrard sounded clearer and more in focus with more definition to the lower end, on Pink Floyd, heavy rock and some complex Orchestral it seemed to hold images better in space and seemed cleaner, however over to the Gyro and at first we both thought, no way, this is all muddy and indistinct. But with longer sessions something came through, it wasn't as attention grabbing as the Garrard, but in some ways it was as if there was more colour, or harmonics..or just feeling..the Simple Violins on Beethoven's Violin Romance were not as focused but had more body and ( I hate this term but can't think of another) Musicality. Switching back to the Garrard with the same record was exactly the same initial reaction...no way, that's awful again..lots of focus and image but cold, until you re acclimatise..so after a few hours of listening to samples of nearly everything in my collection I came home with the feeling that I could live with the Gyro or the Garrard 401..I now can't really say which one I/we preferred. Overall I would keep the 401 but now not for the same reasons as I got rid of it. I prefer the 401 simply because it is so easy to live with, requires no real setting up and has that focus I need. If I had never heard the Garrard and could have been arsed to set the Gyro up correctly I would be happy as hell with it!!
 
I have an old Mark II gyrodec but with the latest upgraded springs and support posts, and it's not a fiddle to setup at all. In fact, it's so easy i'm not sure whether i'm just lucky, or whether i'm just not that bothered about getting things as good as they can be. Maybe my newer posts are what make all the difference?
 
I am sure that the difficulty in the old Gyro is the old springs, my ex Gyro was a very early version with the full plinth which also made getting to the rear spring a bit fiddly. Also setting it up as per Michell's procedure, i.e. getting the sub chassis level and a few mil above the felt pads just did not work at all....it would bounce all over the place..! All I eventually did was set the rear spring at a suitable height and adjusted the two front ones until I got the bounce as it should be. Anyhow my neighbour is a happy chappy and now a few bottles of wine lighter..and I have a different view of the Gyrodeck.
 
Yeah, sounds more complicated. With my one I assemble the deck, then remove the covers from the three springs, and adjust till the deck is level. The bounce can then be affected by whether the springs are rotated differently, so a quick rotate so that their spiral is symmetrical and it's pretty good.

I adjust the overall spring length so that the belts runs smoothly from the motor to the pulley, so that it looks to be at the same height and not rubbing at a slight incline/decline.
 
Mine was a mile out when I checked it, so I re-leveled, rotated the springs and bingo. Perfect vertical bounce. Took a couple of minutes tops. The bass went a bit mental though - very thick all of a sudden. Reduced the tracking weight a bit - DL304 tracks very light and I'm relying on the arm settings rather than a gauge. It seemed better (drier) but it was too late to crank it up and test again.
 


advertisement


Back
Top