Garrard vs Michell

[jason]

Hi guy's, I hope someone can help I am thinking about getting a garrard 301 with sme arm old type. I have at the moment a Michell gyro se spider, upgrades are orb platter hr power supply arm is rega rb300 rewired, with techno weight. I just wondered if anyone could rate both these decks pro' and con's. The reason I am thinking about the garrard is I have owned vintage hi fi in the past rogers cadet,valve amps esl 57s and they sounded excellent better than most modern hi fi I have listened to, so I guess I am thinking a vintage turntable like the garrard could be better than my michell

[DSJR]

I dare say your Gyrorb will be by far the quieter of the two, but may have a slightly "swimmy" sense of pitch as I remember. Suspension fettling is very difficult with these and can make matters worse unless Michell have improved things in recent years.

Garrards are, well, Garrards, with this huge warm hearted sound mainly favouring the centre mono image over extreme left and right. Motor noise and the harmonics thereof will always be there in the very background and exactly how much will depend on plinth suitability, power supply (or not) and the tolerances in manufacture, something all Garrards post early sixties suffered from (could even have been the bean counters at Plessey having something to do with it for all I know).

I love the 401, its styling and the feeling I get whenever I see one (seeing Alex's 401 in white painted HW plinth recently reminded me). 301's are similar but possibly better in one or two ways. The pre "Improved" SME 3009's are lovely too and can take most modern cartridges with ease, as long as either a modern Sumiko style headshell is used, or the SME shell loaded with the blac-tac they provided for the purpose of cartridge coupling - worked too...

[Clive]

Jason, I moved from a Gyrorb with HR PS and Tecnoarm to a 301. Getting enough treble from the 301 was a fight but it can be done. Generalizing greatly I would say the Gyrorb sounds thin in comparison to the rich sounding 301 which also pounds out the bass in a propulsive way.

[Welder]

Hmm, I would be a bit careful here not to let the wood and nostalgia brigade rule out what I believe is a fine turntable in the SE Spider.
A lot is going to depend on the arm and cartridge combination you settle on.
One of my main Hi Fi conspirators has the SE+HR power supply with a haddcock GH242SE with an Ortofon rohmann and if the Garrard 301 with an SME 3009 outperforms that I would be surprised.
When I’ve listened to this combo it’s sounded delightfully musical with all the weight one could wish for.
While “newer” isn’t necessarily “better” than older, the reverse doesn’t necessarily apply either.
I would be very careful here and try some combinations out before you take anyone advice.

[DSJR]

301? lack of treble energy?

Get a decent unipivot arm like a NAS and...

GET A BLEEDIN' DECCA!!!!!!!!!

A 301 really comes into its own with a London Decca, I KNOW these things

[Clive]

Dave, check my signature....

Re arms, it's great with the airbearing T3Pro too.

[DSJR]

Dave, check my signature....

Re arms, it's great with the airbearing T3Pro too.

That makes three or four of us then

[Clive]

Re John's (Welder) wood comment....there's no wood near my 301, it's on a twin tier slate plinth.

BTW, the Salvation significantly outperforms the 301, it would destroy a Gyrorb. All IMO and to my personal taste.

[Welder]

Clive.
Oh arr, no wood then………..
“Significant”, “destroy”; as you say, depends on who is listening doesn’t it (?)

[gjc121]

Hi, I have Gyrodec SE with SME 309 and Ortofon 2m black.
I have fitted Truepoint suspension upgrade and although I was quite happy already now blown away.
This upgrade is massive, see posts on here and other groups.
I would also say that the above TT and arm respond very well to fiddling and fettling.EG remove bridge from arm, spend an hour or more on set up etc
I have heard Garrard and modern direct drive and they sound different but are they better.
You've probably gathered that the Gyro is going nowhere.
Even if I had 5k or more to spend it's staying.
I think the Gyro has a lot more to give you than you think!