Sell Me Your Women, Your Children, Your Vintage Turntable...

OP I go with the SME, Never heard a Woodpecker.

Buddy is a BIG SME fan, that and Colt. LOL He says they are close in build quality.. They are.. Serious QC there.
Soundsmith and SME, peas and carrots...

NEVER heard a Garrard rule the roost.. The closest is a 401.. there is a BIG difference between the two 301 vs 401.

I’ve hear quite a few Triangle Art units too.. The guy use to use the same speakers I use. RMx Elixirs.. https://www.google.com/search?q=vmps+rmx+elixir&sxsrf=ALeKk00-tDINoxmfm5IDNg9b7b5GC4xoTg:1623265...

@millercarbon 

Did you sell your Illustrious? Resolution? If not then moving OL arm to a SOTA would be one way to go. 

Yes, I just sold it on the weekend. I'm thinking of staying with OL products and moving up a couple of notches, but I'm waiting on some ideas/suggestions from OL's Mark Baker.
The Illustrious arm is a fantastic device. I'd love to try the Enterprise.

@pgaulke60

(2) Looks do matter to me. Aesthetics are important to me. They are not the first criteria, but they certainly are one of the criteria.
(3) Some modern turntables look like they should be in a NASA physic lab. How they heck does one dust some of those machines. Point being here I need one that I can effectively and easily operate at all times of the day (nudge nudge) and be able to keep clean and functioning well without too much fuss.
(4) What does rumble sound like? I'm not sure I ever heard it. I'm sure I couldn't have discerned it on my old Pioneer systems. Now my system should have very little of it, but I have never done an A-B for rumble. That would be interesting. Not even sure how I would go about it.

(5) Hats off to you DIY'ers. If I was skilled enough to create the beautiful plinths that you all do, I certainly would be displaying it front and center in my system. Always wanted to be better at wood working than I am, but I still have all my digits!

Couldn't agree more with the above. Particularly #5. I'm a frustrated woodworker/artist/inventor who can't assemble a cupboard from IKEA without bursting a blood vessel. Kudos to those with the skills and patience to pull off some of these restos and plinth builds.

I searched for years for a great rebuilt Garrard 301.
Ever since my old friend, the late Winston Ma, told me that he used his 301 as the source for one of his $50+ gold CDs (FIM).
I finally found a beautiful Woodsong 301 with an Ortophon RS 309D arm. Getting the 301 in my system brought about an extreme upgrade of every component to match the beauty and quality of the 301. Replaced the arm with a Triplanar and now have a Lyra Atlas SL. The drive and life-like physicality of the 301 appeals to me beyond any belt drive. There is a solidity to the unit and the sound. I think there are many good reasons why the 301 and other idler wheel TTs are so popular and sought after.
Aside from the arm and cartridge, two upgrades were excellent: A 220v 50hz Long Dog Audio (LDA) power supply and an Ohio Class Silent Running Audio (SRA) platform. For anyone with a 301 or 401, I would highly recommend. The PS allows the motor to run as designed with 220v and the platform also transformed the performance.

I have an untouched 401 220 50hz. Anybody want a Garrard 401. I’m sure I have 60 hz pully here too (somewhere) if you want to go that direction..

I heard the same thing on the 301 and 401. the 220 50 is better with a converter.. PS is just the latest.. Good reviews though. I’d give it a shot for the money no doubt.. There are US models though, different motor if I remember.. The 220/50hz model is suppose to be the cats meow!!

I’ll stick with Thoren. Any one use the NEW TD124 DD? You want all that speed control. I bet Thoren has it down to a gnat’s a$$. E50 motor though? LONG GONE

15K retail, progress? I’ll bet mine are better and 12-13k less. ;-)

You can air ride a spindle I don’t see how with direct drive, AND easy to do a air seal change...

Regards