New Garrard 301 Plinth by Audio Grail

For the last twenty plus years we've been rebuilding 301's whilst going through multiple iterations of plinths for our personal listening - chasing 'that sound'. Playing with Materials Panzer / Graphite / Birch ply, beech ply etc / Cherry mixed mediums (polystyrene & concrete was fun...) Slate / resins etc... just trying to get to grips with what differing designs and materials really deliver. In short the pro's & cons. Measure / listen / reject. But nothing was lost - We've arrived somewhere! The 'Grosvenor' is constructed from a particular selected Bamboo. Internally the design is rather different, the concept being to break up the mass leading towards the arm (Mass whilst lowering the frequency will store the 'energy' which can and does affect the sound. The Bamboo is very efficient as releasing energy (Managing vibration) The veneer is Walnut, the hefty armboard is lacquered Bronze. Cosmetically the hardest part in terms of 'Look' is making something simple, ordered and beautiful allowing the 301 to be the star of the show, then moving from the symmetry to the outrigger tonearm board. In terms of sound it's probably best to let other people speak about it in the coming months but this one is a keeper.

https://youtu.be/LPVIb7zTCfA

A little play test (Please forgive the compressed & digitized short, this can really only serve as a pointer towards potential, ensure you select HD on playback)

https://youtu.be/Z6dHJJOpYwk

Listening in isolation, amending, testing repeating from one 'perspective' can be a little limiting. In the ideal scenario, listening in different systems and spaces can prove to be insightful. The short film below is part 1 of 'Road Testing' the new AG plinth. In this case in a full Western electric system of d_s_p.london. Very difficult to get levels on a phone in this space but the experience of hearing it through a system designed and made for the most part in the 20's and 30's for auditoriums of 3K + was really enjoyable. I'm not sure I've physically 'felt' mid range like this before?

https://youtu.be/9c3PS3yhVVk

It's easy to get stuck into a certain 'sound' which unfortunately offers only narrow perspective, particularly for as in a very small niche of audio). One of the things in audio I've found particularly helpful is keep an open mind and experience as much as possible. It's really only from this place that yard sticks can me founded or challenged - As Pt.2 of the Grosvenor 301 plinth Road testing we went over to Unique Audio for a 'tasting'. (Again apologies for the poor camera work / sound here, it really doesn't do the 'in room' sound much justice even with a buckled record!)

https://youtu.be/DJe3a3cG6Z0