Audio Grail 301, Bob Cusworth plinth & Graham Phantom Elite ...a glimpse
I had the unique opportunity to glimpse at the possibilities of the Garrard 301, a very well designed and built plinth and a top end Tonearm can offer.
After a friendly and informative discussion with Mik at Unique Audio on the qualities and limitations of various Turntable combinations, especially the Garrards, he unexpectedly and very kindly offered to loan me a very well thought out combination for a play.
Well, ...What’s a man to do with such a delicious offering!!
The combination consisted of a beautiful Garrard 301, completely restored and reworked
by Audio Grail. The Garrard 301 Turntable Audio Grail Special Edition 'Pearl Signature'.
Pearl signature I hear you ask?, well the paint work is pretty, real pretty. It's finished in White Pearlescent paint, which gives a very subtle pink pearl hallo.
The internals have been completely reworked to optimal performance and feature
stripped and replated linkage new idler wheel, new bushes, a new speed disk and a new over size heavier platter and much more.
I have to say, visually it really is a beautiful thing.
The Audio Grail 301 was mounted into an RJC Audio, Bob Cusworth plinth.
These custom made plinths use a special composite resin material to damp and reduce vibrations. I cut the following info from a 'Wam' thread on these plinths as much of this stuff is word of mouth and contacts, in fact I couldn’t find a current website for RJC plinths.
“The resin composite top plates are housed in a solid timber frame and a stainless steel arm pod is located within the plinth on an isolated heavy sub plinth. Another feature of this plinth is the decoupling of the motor from the Garrard top plate. The motor is mounted within a second high mass sub frame, which is an assembly of cast resin and resinated Bamboo”
Hence to say again a beautiful furniture finish product that would be the proud centre of attention in the smartest living rooms.
The tonearm was a very special Platinum rewired (a special Unique Audio custom)
12" Graham Phantom Elite, utilising a variation of the Unipivot approach.
Hanging out the bottom of the Graham Phantom Elite was a rather substantial LFD tonearm phono cable, The ‘Silver Scorpion’.
So as you can see I was in rather high brow company, which admittedly made me a little nervous.
Really, I think the purpose in this rambling post was how this stuff changed a couple of preconceived views I had managed to gather.
The first for me was that a high mass wood plinth housing a vintage idler would all sound the same. They 'should' all be comparatively inexpensive, basic things, besides, you can pick one up on ebay from Moldova, for a couple of hundred pounds + shipping!
What first strikes you when handling a RJC Audio, Bob Cusworth plinth is the sheer weight. It’s ridiculously heavy in comparison to other wooden plinths for the Garrards.
It is beautifully constructed and has a sense of real quality to it. The finish and fit is just top draw. It’s in a totally different universe to the other plinths I have had contact with
and, it should be, as it's approaching 8-10 x times the cost of most.
But this wasn't an exercise to see how cheaply an Idler and plinth could be assembled
or indeed a Garrard could be made playable by a quick home fettle and some new oil.
This was the other end of the spectrum, to see what finely crafted products, carefully selected and put together to compliment each other, could sound like.
I admit, it’s hard to tell which component has the greater impact in such a combo, but I suspect they all do equally, as you know, it ALL matters.
I won’t try and explain what the sound was or wasn’t, but overall it was sheer quality. It had the drive and grace the Garrards posses and much more. It wasn't dull or too dark.
The arm is obviously top notch and dug detail and pace from the records, even though the cartridge used (mine, a Cartridge Man Music Master LE) could possibly be considered the weaker link in the chain.
To encapsulate the feeling and music this combination produced into words is pretty impossible / ridiculous.
But I felt very lucky to peek into a world that frankly is well past my station price wise..
Although, I must say, the Audio Grail 301 offers superb value if one was keeping a turntable for life, IMHO.
The Graham Phantom Elite Tonearm is just fantasy stuff for me, but it’s engineering and design is something to marvel at. Fantastic
The RJC Audio, Bob Cusworth plinth, I’ll stick my head out here, I’d say is a relative good value product. unfortunately such quality, R&D and raw materials costs..and if I had the dough..I thinks I would!
It was a pleasure to have it all in my living room for a few days.
Cheers Mik, you are a gentleman sir.
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Originally Posted by rmcin626
