Timestep Hi Fi Forum

[Marco]

Lol - my remark of course was tongue-in-cheek...

However, IMO, a properly fettled 401, with a decent arm and cartridge, playing mint well-recorded vinyl, would smoke ANY CD player!!

I do agree though that once Alex gets his Garrard up and running properly, it will simply be another quality source for him to enjoy his music on

Marco.

P.S Dave, I was looking for your thoughts on my post #13 here: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...?t=6965&page=2

Cheers!

[Rare Bird]

However, IMO, a properly fettled 401, with a decent arm and cartridge, playing mint well-recorded vinyl, would smoke ANY CD player!!

I do agree though that once Alex gets his Garrard up and running properly, it will simply be another quality source for him to enjoy his music on

One important aspect thats been over looked & thats money, it's one thing having a '401' but to get one properly fettled & housed complete with the right arm cost plenty cutter mi bruvver.'401's do need a power supply cos the speed does tend to drift at first. If you wanna just chuck it in any old bannana box with any old arm it's not gonna sound very good is it! Spending on turntable like this is fine if you have plenty income spare etc etc.I could never aford to attempt a '401' now even if i wanted to, not that i would anyway, i had enough of the last one to last me a lifetime...They are asthetically one of my fav motor units but they also sound no where near as good as CD i listern to.

For the record my '401' was in both a Loricraft & one of my own multi-ply plinths with Fidelity Research FR64S arm.

In all reality what would you rather do save xxxx pounds & a whole load of ball ache or stick listerning to CD buying yourself a good few hundered CD's instead. I know what i'd do.Hobbies are also compromised when you have jobs & kids

[Clive]

One important aspect thats been over looked & thats money, it's one thing having a '401' but to get one properly fettled & housed complete with the right arm cost plenty cutter mi bruvver.'401's do need a power supply cos the speed does tend to drift at first. If you wanna just chuck it in any old bannana box with any old arm it's not gonna sound very good is it! Spending on turntable like this is fine if you have plenty income spare etc etc.I could never aford to attempt a '401' now even if i wanted to, not that i would anyway, i had enough of the last one to last me a lifetime...They are asthetically one of my fav motor units but they also sound no where near as good as CD i listern to.

For the record my '401' was in both a Loricraft & one of my own multi-ply plinths with Fidelity Research FR64S arm.

In all reality what would you rather do save xxxx pounds & a whole load of ball ache or stick listerning to CD buying yourself a good few hundered CD's instead. I know what i'd do.Hobbies are also compromised when you have jobs & kids

A 2nd hand arm for say £100 plus £200 for a slate plinth plus a little work is what's needed, cartridge too. I bet folks around here have items to sell at a good price. A power supply is NOT required. Sure Garrards take 15 mins for the speed to settle. Don't mess with the power, no light bulbs in series or anything silly like that.

[Rare Bird]

Na they want doing properly..£100 use arm aint properly

[Clive]

Na they want doing properly..£100 use arm aint properly

Ok, stretch the budget to £150, it should be possible to get a Hadcock with patience (which will be required for the setup too).

[Rare Bird]

[DSJR]

Hey, I've just thought of summat...

Andr'e, you used an FR64S and found CD vastly better! HiFi Dave used an SPU - IN AN FR64S and found the combo wanting..

I'm wondering if the FR64S is just not cutting it in terms of sound quality. Forget the cachet of such an arm for a minute, I'm talking of an arm which actually may not be as good as 1970's golden memories of it are....

P.S. My favourite 301/401 combinations were with SME's with properly matched cartridges, the Transcriptors "Fluid Arm" with ADC XLM and a couple in Bastin plinths with NAS tonearms (the old Omega Point arm/Decca was an awsome combination with a Garrard).

I'd agree with Andr'e about mains voltage affecting 401 motor speed and before too long I'll locate the early 70's article and scan it to post here as proof. The 401 didn't use a beefed up "Synchro Lab" motor, just a heavy-duty induction type as I recall and these are sensitive to mains voltage changes.

[Clive]

I'd agree with Andr'e about mains voltage affecting 401 motor speed and before too long I'll locate the early 70's article and scan it to post here as proof. The 401 didn't use a beefed up "Synchro Lab" motor, just a heavy-duty induction type as I recall and these are sensitive to mains voltage changes.

301/401 use a shaded pole motor. It's very insensitive to voltage fluctuations, I've run it from a variac, I had to trim off 60V to get it to slow appreciably. It's more sensitive to mains frequency.

[hifi_dave]

Hey, I've just thought of summat...

Andr'e, you used an FR64S and found CD vastly better! HiFi Dave used an SPU - IN AN FR64S and found the combo wanting..

I'm wondering if the FR64S is just not cutting it in terms of sound quality. Forget the cachet of such an arm for a minute, I'm talking of an arm which actually may not be as good as 1970's golden memories of it are....

P.S. My favourite 301/401 combinations were with SME's with properly matched cartridges, the Transcriptors "Fluid Arm" with ADC XLM and a couple in Bastin plinths with NAS tonearms (the old Omega Point arm/Decca was an awsome combination with a Garrard).

I'd agree with Andr'e about mains voltage affecting 401 motor speed and before too long I'll locate the early 70's article and scan it to post here as proof. The 401 didn't use a beefed up "Synchro Lab" motor, just a heavy-duty induction type as I recall and these are sensitive to mains voltage changes.

I don't need 'golden memories', I've got the gear here and now....

[DSJR]

Dave, when you're up in your barn-loft, please can you look out those mags I was reading and see if you can find the article I'm banging on about. I mentioned it to you at the time and as it was only late last year I know I'm not mistaken on this one.

Clive, I know I haven't made this up and promise faithfully to get this thing scanned for you all to read. I'm not doubting you for a minute, but there was a definite concern regarding the 401 motors compared to 301 motors (I thought they were much the same).