See my 401. If I was doing it again, I would be tempted to get a Grail Audio refurb but like the others mentioned, there are alternatives. If you don't fancy working on the unit, it is the only way to go. There is a guy on ebay doing plinths for $500 to $750. He did a great job on mine. I'd be wary of these $10000 jobbies, you do mot need to spend that much. Also the Jelco 12" is a solid performer- don't let the price fool you. Do not mount the turntable on a crappy wooden table either.
Help me buy a Garrard
Friends,
I was almost about to pull the trigger on a EMT 948/950 from Mr.Dusch (EMT engineer). However I have never heard them so I was taking some time. In the mean time I heard a couple of other vintage turntables and among them the Garrard 301 sounded terrific to me. The Garrard I heard was installed in decent wooden plinth (probably ply), nothing exotic though. Now that I am thinking of getting one there seems to be various options to get a Garrard TT:
1. Buy a good 301 off ebay and get a decent birch ply plinth built and ready to go!
2. Same as option 1 but also do the kokomo bearing upgrade and the Loricraft PSU upgrade.
3. Get one of the current Garrard flag bearers (Loricraft, Audio grail, OMA etc) to build you a 301 based TT with the same mods as mentioned in option 2.
4. Finally get an exotic fully built, modded 301 from Steve Dobbins or Artisan Fidelity or may be Albert Porter. I see that they change even the platter and mods to the Garrard. Here I am concerned that it may ultimately alter the overall sound more towards the modern side. I am not really after that. Some improvements to the overall noise floor and soundstaging is fine but taking it too far may ultimately get me only half the Garrard sound and other half the modder's sound.
My question is, what is the right way of doing a Garrard for a first timer and non-diyer like me considering that I want my Garrard to sound like a very good Garrard in the first place ?
If I just do good birch ply plinth and get a clean 301 to go with it, how far am I done ? Will a Dobbins plinth be a much higher grade of an upgrade ?
I currently use an Immedia RPM2 turntable which is already very good so with the Garrard I want to start at a certain acceptable level.
I was almost about to pull the trigger on a EMT 948/950 from Mr.Dusch (EMT engineer). However I have never heard them so I was taking some time. In the mean time I heard a couple of other vintage turntables and among them the Garrard 301 sounded terrific to me. The Garrard I heard was installed in decent wooden plinth (probably ply), nothing exotic though. Now that I am thinking of getting one there seems to be various options to get a Garrard TT:
1. Buy a good 301 off ebay and get a decent birch ply plinth built and ready to go!
2. Same as option 1 but also do the kokomo bearing upgrade and the Loricraft PSU upgrade.
3. Get one of the current Garrard flag bearers (Loricraft, Audio grail, OMA etc) to build you a 301 based TT with the same mods as mentioned in option 2.
4. Finally get an exotic fully built, modded 301 from Steve Dobbins or Artisan Fidelity or may be Albert Porter. I see that they change even the platter and mods to the Garrard. Here I am concerned that it may ultimately alter the overall sound more towards the modern side. I am not really after that. Some improvements to the overall noise floor and soundstaging is fine but taking it too far may ultimately get me only half the Garrard sound and other half the modder's sound.
My question is, what is the right way of doing a Garrard for a first timer and non-diyer like me considering that I want my Garrard to sound like a very good Garrard in the first place ?
If I just do good birch ply plinth and get a clean 301 to go with it, how far am I done ? Will a Dobbins plinth be a much higher grade of an upgrade ?
I currently use an Immedia RPM2 turntable which is already very good so with the Garrard I want to start at a certain acceptable level.