Garrard 401 or Thorens 125

I can only comment on the Garrard 401's older brother, the 301.  These turntables were built for longevity and 100% duty cycles in broadcast studios.  Mine is about 55 years old and as far as I know has never needed any repair or spare parts.  The only routine maintenance required was feeding a bit more grease into the main bearing from its built-in grease cup.

It was my dad's and to get it into tip-top shape I have replaced the main bearing with a much bigger one, and replaced the idler wheel and its bearings, the only things which were showing a bit of wear.  It was pretty easy to replace most of the springs at the same time.

I have not touched the motor.  The only thing I can think of to look out for is flats on the idler wheel, which are a sign that the table has been switched off at the mains while still running.

Mine comes up to full speed in under a second, and stops just as quickly.  If you are really fussy about pitch, they have always needed to run for about 10 minutes to warm up.

There's no electronics at all to fail!

Noise.  The 301 and 401 are inherently mechanically noisy.  However, there is a solid core of information on how to dramatically reduce the mechanical noise mostly having to do with plinth building.  The OEM plinth did not do it.  Once the noise issues are addressed, both are apparently superb TTs with a loyal following. There is not a similar group of fans around the TD125, but that does not mean much.

I wonder if you don't mean the Thorens 124, not the Thorens 125 which is an electronically controlled belt drive. The Thorens 124 uses an idler wheel like the Garrard to drive the platter.

I was in the same boat. I was looking for a 124 or 301 but most are in pretty well used condition.  

I ended up buying a new Sota.   Zero regrets , it sounds phenomenal. 

In my second system i have an old Garrard Lab 80. As others have mentioned those old idler drives can be noisy.   

I'd recommend a new table unless you like projects. 

The OP did say it was a belt drive vs. idler drive choice do I think he got the model numbers correct.  The fact that they were being offered st comparable prices is a bit surprising; I would expect the Garrard 401 to cost a lot more.

The 401 is comparable in sound quality to Garrard’s iconic 301 model, and some say it has a better motor.  The 301 is being bought back by the company that holds the Garrard and SME name which re-conditions the table using newly manufactured parts where needed.  This “301 Advanced” model is paired with a top  SME tonearm and re-sold at something like $65,000 dollars.  The 401 may not be as collectible, but it is right up there with the 301 and Thorens 124 in sound quality.  Of course, arm quality is important too and all of these tables deserve very high quality arms.  Most of them have older arms that are not as suited to modern cartridges so a change may be something to look into if that is the case.