New room new system

[SLS]

I thought I’d do a thread having just completed a Garrard 301 restoration, the final part of a new room started in 2021.

Or at least other people did it for me. I got the idea in my head years ago when I went up to see Terry at Loricraft to collect a PRC3 record cleaner machine, which still does regular service for me and my son. I spent an afternoon with Terry and had a demo of his 501.

For the last 10 years I’ve used a turntable made by Claro Precision Engineering up in Richmond, N Yorks, which works very well, but is a bit black and industrial for our new music room that was built in 2021. The Claro has a high mass perimeter weighted platter and the thing is made to exacting specifications using state of the art equipment and is serviceable thanks to using Premotec motors and Rega belts. So no need to change, but what the hell, go for it.

Claro procured an Origin Live Illustrious arm when I bought it and I soon added a second Jelco 750 supplied by Hugo at Ammonite Audio. A few years later I upgraded the 750 to the 850, also from Hugo, and around the beginning of 2023 I changed the OL Illustrious to Reed 3P, also from Hugo. I told him I’d had in mind for years doing a 301 and he put me in touch with Ray at CTC. So I spoke to Ray who told me to get a donor machine. I was also speaking to Emporium because I had a couple of things to sell. They offered me a donor machine at a very good price that they sent to Ray to check out first that it was OK They also offered to buy my Claro if the whole thing worked out.

So after about five minutes I decided to go ahead, and Ray put me in touch with Carl Ellis to make the plinth. I spoke to Hugo about the second arm and for whatever reason I ordered a The Wand from New Zealand via their UK dealer. One factor was the very short stubby counterweight and they are very highly regarded performers. It turned out the problem was that it was advertised with a rather pretty metal armrest that has been changed to a rather not pretty black printed job that turned up with glue smears. They sent me a metal one and it had a design fault, hence the change. So regretfully I sent the whole thing back. I went through the options with Hugo and decided on a Groovemaster III. I considered a Frank Schroeder, but you have to pass an examination/interrogation with him before he’ll even consider selling you anything.

Patience is a virtue with Carl, but he did a nice job at a very nice price. I think 4 months from first giving him the go-ahead. We bought a huge bundle of veneer when we rebuilt the house, used it for the kitchen and 5 other large units, so I asked my cabinet maker to send some up to Carl.

I decided on a gloss rather than a satin finish and Carl said that he could do a polyurethane gloss, but you need a special safety license and a spray room to do a high quality gloss lacquer. My cabinet maker friend Paul, who has done a huge amount of work in our house over the last 30 years, said he would do it, but it took five weeks because there’s about 16 layers of lacquer and each has to be polished, so it’s quite a process.

There wasn’t a huge amount of effort on my part. I had a very pleasant return trip London to Wakefield to go and see Ray and pick up the 301 and platter, Paul’s workshop is only 20 minutes from my home.

Terry impressed upon me the importance of the power supply, although Ray seems fairly indifferent on the subject. Anyway, I spoke to Nick Gorham who I’ve always admired as an engineer and it was a simple decision to order his LDA power supply. They do seem remarkably popular and the price is pretty good. The cheaper option would’ve been the Deco unit, but it’s the same circuitry as the power supply in my Claro unit, so I could’ve used that.

For stability and isolation I had a steel rack built by a chap called Kevin, also local, and who regularly makes stuff for Paul and made a steel stand for a drinks cabinet for me a few years ago. It’s absolutely rock solid made out of 25 mm² steel with 3 mm² walls to my specification at a grand total cost of £540. That included 5 feet at about £3 each. I got a piece of slate from a kitchen worktop supplier in Wales for a little over £200. Paul made the shelves using more of the same veneer, so for a few pennies over £1,000 I have myself an absolutely rock solid hi-fi stand without needing any more fancy isolation products or feet.

I bought a sheet of Sorbothane off Amazon and there are few squares between the steel and the slate and also between the steel and a couple of the shelves. The 301 plinth is sitting on feet from Kridon I bought off their eBay shop a few years ago when I made a stand for my Claro turntable.

I bought the Luxman 509X from @hifidave advertised here a couple of years ago. It was too heavy for him to lug around. I try not to make a habit of lifting it. It’s a really lovely thing. I use the internal phono for the Groovemaster, I have an RCM phono for the Reed 3P.

I'd been using Class D since 2016, but the new room's acoustics made it just a bit too brutal, the Luxman is still super-resolving, just a bit warmer.

The end result far exceeds my expectations, which was for something as good as and a lot prettier than the Claro. I think the brass platter and upgraded bearing has a lot to do with it.

[SLS]

Some images.

The most important point was that I wanted to thank Hugo, Ray, Carl, Nick and Nic at Emporium, and Hifi Dave, kind folk in the audio community for making this rather daunting project fun and relatively easy.

[SLS]

A leak from a bathroom brought gown the ceiling in the dining room.


So we ended up re-doing a lot of the house and the dining room became a music room.


The builders arrived in May 2021 and the music kicked off in November 2021. The different acoustics and colour scheme resulted in a completely new audio system. There turntable completed the audio system on Thursday. We had to fix the outside of the house and that was meant to be finished on Friday, only one window frame that needs some varnish and we're done.

The chances of being done on a house are about the same as being done on a stereo system. Just costs more.

[Ali Tait]

301 looks great!

Nick's power supply is a no brainer for a Garrard, I have two and wouldn't part with them.

[SLS]

I'm rather blown away with the sound. Ray gave me a demo up at CTC through some very small (but good) speakers, so the sound was understandably a bit bright. It unbelievably full, detailed and engaging. The Reed 3P in particular is very popular on 301's.

[Macca]

Great system!

[Barry]

Excellent write up Steven and a great system.
I always preferred the grey hammer finish over the cream finish on the Garrard 301.

What is the curved arm at the rear of the deck? It looks like an EMT 997, but the counterweight looks different.

[SLS]

Excellent write up Steven and a great system.
I always preferred the grey hammer finish over the cream finish on the Garrard 301.

What is the curved arm at the rear of the deck? It looks like an EMT 997, but the counterweight looks different.

It’s a Groovemaster III. Very elegant design and they recently brought out a pretty headshell in a matt dark grey. It comes in curved or S-shape varieties.

[SLS]

The rest of the system is pretty straightforward. Puritan is a no brainer, if only for component isolation and it just makes everything quiet.

I had an Innuos Zen III for five years and upgraded it to the Pulsar.

I had a spare weekend because my wife had a trip booked to New York, so I thought I’d go to Amsterdam for two concerts, a ballet and a demonstration of the Holo May at their European distributor. The distributor told me on the phone that the Level 2 and Level 3 are near distinguishable, so I googled the Level 2 and found one on eBay. A little more googling and I identified who the seller was, gave him a ring and it turns out he was about 4 miles away in North London. He said I was the fourth person to do that in the 3 hours the unit had been on eBay, but I got in first, went round and picked him up with the machine, had a home demo at my place in my system with a blind AB test with my existing DAC bought it on the spot.

RCM is a hidden gem. As a business, they are the largest hi-fi distributor in Poland. they’ve been making phono stages for about 15 years and they told me in total they’ve made about 1500 units. They are not interested in increasing production. Several reviewers use the middle unit (£12,000) as a reference phono stage, but they have another model that is about £35,000. The little Sensor2 Mk2 is a serious performer in its own right. Over a few years used the Vertere and EAR Phonobox, both excellent value if rather different, I tried a Modwright that was faulty (apparently it was a design fault), a dealer lent me the RCM and that was that. I can’t see that it is mentioned anywhere else on the forum. I’m a little surprised.

I’ve bought about three pairs of Harbeth over the years from hi-fi Dave and he’s always gone on about how good Luxman is. So when he was selling his demo 509X at cost, it was too good an opportunity to miss. He never actually hooked it up because it was just too heavy. The deal was that I drive over to his place in Saffron Walden and pick it up, which was no problem.

[SLS]

I think the Hammertone and Cream were the two original colours? Gloss black is popular these days, but not original. Plus my room colours are grey/sliver and some olive green, so Cream would not work.

I looked up the EMT 997. Does look a bit similar, but it has branding and stuff on top which is a bit ugly. I liked the dark grey yoke on the Groovemaster, and if Hugo sells it I had not doubt about it's quality.