Garrard 301 restoration project

[Wakefield Turntables]

I'm just using single channel output from the Sondex S100 is dual mono so works well. The ESL is SN>800. I don't think I'll find a sub 800 single Quad ESL any time today, this year or probably even decade. Saying that, the Tannoy's do a great job reproducing MONO when played as a pair.

[Wakefield Turntables]

The Garrard 301 Restoration Project PT LII - Big Boy Pants!


Another sunday and another few lines about the journey of the 301. Tweaking (not twerking) still continues on the 301 and this time it's been with platter mats. I started messing around by adding the original 301 mat onto my Tenuto platter mat to try and improve the VTA for the SME 3009 MONO only tonearm. I'd forgot about the mat only to play a few records and realise that something quite nice was happening to the soundstage. I was hearing a slightly improved presentation from the 301 so after a few days of making sure I wasn't hearing things I decided to put the 301 mat under the Tenuto mat and then sit back play some vinyl and compare the results. Well, the original mat is now sitting back on top of the Tenuto, presentation seemed a wee bit sluggish and less forensic in end note detail, loss of definition, more blunt and nicey-nicey. I suppose that's ok if you like that sort of thing but not me. So, 301 platter mat sits on top of the Tenuto and cosmic karma has been restored.

The Garrard 401 has been a bit of a distraction and I still haven't got the bearing brace installed on the 301. I did get my old Nigels Speed Controller installed on the 401, can you tell the inspiration for the design.



The 401 now has the holy trinity of have the motor decoupled and the ability to control motor Hz and Voltage, the 301 only has motor Hz and Voltage control, one day I'll upgrade the bamboo plinth and decouple the motor, first I have to install the bearing brace, so the old big boy pants will have to come out and the 301 gets dismantled again! The 401 makes a worthy back-up turntable but it just dosen't have the boogie factor of the 301 even though technically it has the better plinth, motor control, and tonearm. Ah well, horses for courses I suppose. I can't see myself ever linking up the NSC to see if it sounds better than the Pheonix Engineering set-up, it wouldn't be that difficult but I just can't be bothered. It will be interesting to see how the baring brace sounds and I think I really do need to get a weekend booked in where I can just mess around with the 301 over a full day and get everything set-up properly and then simply leave the thing alone. Mods are getting short on the ground again so the blog might not be updated as often as I'd like .

Stay tuned.......

[Jimbo]

That speed controller looks serious piece of kit compared to the Phoenix. Has an Audio Research look about it?

[Wakefield Turntables]

That speed controller looks serious piece of kit compared to the Phoenix. Has an Audio Research look about it?

You guessed correctly! I wanted a Audio Research / 1960's NASA space lab look. I just needed some grab handles at the time.

[Wakefield Turntables]

The Garrard 301 Restoration Project PT LIII - Another plinth?

Yep, looks like it, one of my own design. I've learned a lot since making the bamboo plinth and have decided to really go down the route of "end-stage" plinth construction. I intend to make something that might have 3 arms or certainly the ability to accept three arms. It will have a decoupled motor, a bearing brace and collar and more importantly will be made from Permali. I shall still be developing and prototyping my current bamboo plinth in which the 301 lives. I shall than make the Permali plinth as my end-game plinth once I'm happy with the final design. I will soon be loosing my current office address and with this the safety of packages being safely stored and delivered 6 days a week. So, my hand has been forced . My only concern is that the plinth may over damp the 301 but I have only heard good things from people who have dabbled with Panzerholz or Permali. My current plinth incorperates Panzerholz SME tonearm mounts and I'm convinced they have helped to elevate the sonic performance of the 301. The only downside to this folly is that the plinth weight will increase quite markedly, this means that I will probably have to buy 4 new pods for my Townshend Seismic plinth . I just hope that my supplier comes through with the order.

As an aside I have just come up with a new small project to upgrade my REFFC external XO for my Tannoy 15" MG's, again it's going to complete Tom Tweekery but it should be fun and hopefully improve the sonic's of the 301.

As ever my friends stay tuned (it should be fun)........

[Chas B]

The Garrard 301 Restoration Project PT LIII - Another plinth?

Yep, looks like it, one of my own design. I've learned a lot since making the bamboo plinth and have decided to really go down the route of "end-stage" plinth construction. I intend to make something that might have 3 arms or certainly the ability to accept three arms. It will have a decoupled motor, a bearing brace and collar and more importantly will be made from Permali. I shall still be developing and prototyping my current bamboo plinth in which the 301 lives. I shall than make the Permali plinth as my end-game plinth once I'm happy with the final design. I will soon be loosing my current office address and with this the safety of packages being safely stored and delivered 6 days a week. So, my hand has been forced . My only concern is that the plinth may over damp the 301 but I have only heard good things from people who have dabbled with Panzerholz or Permali. My current plinth incorperates Panzerholz SME tonearm mounts and I'm convinced they have helped to elevate the sonic performance of the 301. The only downside to this folly is that the plinth weight will increase quite markedly, this means that I will probably have to buy 4 new pods for my Townshend Seismic plinth . I just hope that my supplier comes through with the order.

As an aside I have just come up with a new small project to upgrade my REFFC external XO for my Tannoy 15" MG's, again it's going to complete Tom Tweekery but it should be fun and hopefully improve the sonic's of the 301.

As ever my friends stay tuned (it should be fun)........

A Permali plinth will be interesting, I have ply and slate plinths and hope to try Permali one day. I have recently obtained a small piece which I will use for an armboard on my stacked ply plinth/301. Will an armboard make a noticeable difference, time will tell...

[Wakefield Turntables]

See post #517 both my SME's have been mounted on Panzerholz tonearm boards. To my ears it makes a lot of difference, YMMV.

[Wakefield Turntables]

A week away from work and quite a few things planned for the 301 and it's infrastructure! Stay tuned...

[Wakefield Turntables]

The Garrard 301 Restoration Project PT LIV (54) - XO mini project


My Garrard 301 is just one infrastructure component of a system where everything is designed to try and work together and get the best possible sound through my big Tannoy wardrobes ! Indeed, it's part of the Tannoy wardrobes which are getting a little TLC, mainly the cross-overs are sometimes known as the XO's. My XO's have been designed by Paul @ RFC components and they are excellent but I got around to thinking that things could be improved again but using up some spare parts which are sitting around in my spares bin in my garage. I installed some WBT speaker terminals and I originally thought that they were solid copper, NOPE! I'm afraid they are "copper alloy" which means brass which has been gold coated. I now have some lovely Cardas solid Copper binding posts https://www.cardas.com/binding-posts (have a look down the link you will find them). The locking nut is brass which is non-magnetic amd I have replaced all the plastic spacers and spacing washers with custom made spacers and washers from 7mm bamboo. The idea is to try and damp the binding posts, probably complete foo but who cares it's a small fun project to while away some of the time whilst I'm away from work. . I have managed to find some solid 3mm silver in teflon which will also form part of the signal path in the XO, this will replace a small piece of copper wire which currently does the job. Finally, I will also be getting rid of two pairs of spades which the speaker cable to the bing post, the Cardas binding posts accpet my SAEC speaker cable very nice, so, that's one less component in the audio signal chain.

Now, sometime ago I had my external XO's upgraded to Paul's highest spec and I also asked Paul to make my cabinets smaller so that they could fit under my Tannoys and be out of sight. Previously I had the XO's mounted to the underside of the speaker cabinet so thety took up less space in my listening room. The Tannoy speaker cabinets are massive probably weigh 75Kg each but they still resonate and this would be going straight into my XO's. Now, I have decoupled the XO's and they sit on the floor so less resonance going into the XO's and hopefully less into the turntable. I might make something for them to sit on so they are further isolated from resonance travelling into them from the floor. I'll have to have another rummage in the spares box.

Finally, a we update on the Permali plinth for the 301. I'm in talks with a supplier to ship over some pre-cut sections so that I can assemble and cut the plinth to my design and measurements, this is still very much a work in progress and totally depends upon cost. OK, I think that's it for now. I will take some photo's of the updated XO's when they are finished. Stay tuned.....

[Wakefield Turntables]

The Garrard 301 Restoration Project PT LV (55) - XO mini project Pt II (Surgery).
Just completely ignore Part 54 the XO has undergone a bit of surgery. I've just soldered my speaker cable directly onto the XO, nothing new at all but I have managed to remove several levels of components from the signal path. These components are the banana plugs coming from the power amp, the banana plugs attached to the binding posts of the XO, the binding posts of the XO and a small wire soldered from the binding posts onto the XO circuit board alongside several layers of solder. So, all my hard work yesterday came to nought! I can laugh now , I've only modded one XO and one speaker channel to see if this would work and I'm pleased to say that it's singing nicely with some Mingus. I have another day off tomorrow so I will probably manage to get all the new mods installed and have a good listen. I do have one problem, and that's my SuperTweeters, they work very well with my binding posts but are now defunct unless I solder them directly onto the XO. Let's do one thing at a time. I'll get all the XO mods done tomorrow so I can have a good listen. Stay tuned...