Garrard 301 restoration project

[Macca]

Have you started making some bass traps yet to cope with the Huge Bass your going to have from those Beasts your buying


Rolls of Insulation left in their bags are superb, just stack em up in the corner. That is all my mate uses in his state of the art listening room in the corners.!

Not worried about that, I've had IMF TLS50 work fine in here and they go very low. I already have a roll of insulation in one corner, yes - it works.

[Wakefield Turntables]

The Garrard 301 Restoration Project PT LXI - Big boy pants revisted.


Gentlemen, I usually update my various blogs on Sunday just before the working week starts. No such update this week so I thought I'd something tonight. I have finally fitted my homebrew bearing clamp to the 301 plinth. I dosen't look pretty and it's still in prototype development but at least I have a working design which is easy to fit. It really does need to be smartened up but I think that this can wait until later on in the week. As always with these things it didn't actually take that long to build something in the garage and then execute said design. The idea is to try and stiffen the mounting of the bearing to the top plate in the vertical plane. This modification has been used by the Lenco bretheren for a number of years and by-and-large people agree that it improves the sonic output.

The 301 is in pieces again. The SME 3009 is taking a holiday upto Audio Origami for a check over and ( I think) an earthing problem with the tonearm, but I'll leave J7 to work that one out! I will probably use the 401 for vinyl duties or maybe even listen to something called a CD. Overall the 301 just needs the motor decoupling from the top plate and we are motoring on all cylinders with regards the mods available. I could of course go down the route of larger platter, a machined bespoke chassis but why bother I'm having fun again messing around with things. Stay tuned...

[Jimbo]

I can understand your theory with the bearing stiffening bracket. You can never be too stiff!?

[Chas B]

I'll be very interested to see how you de-couple the motor. It seems quite simple, drop the motor cradle just enough to dis-engage it from the top plate and secure the bottom of the cradle to the bottom of the plinth... well, that's what I've thought about doing

[Wakefield Turntables]

I'll be very interested to see how you de-couple the motor. It seems quite simple, drop the motor cradle just enough to dis-engage it from the top plate and secure the bottom of the cradle to the bottom of the plinth... well, that's what I've thought about doing

Charlie, that's exactlty what you would do, just need a template designing so that we can all do it.

[Wakefield Turntables]

The Garrard 301 Restoration Project PT LXII - Big Boy Pants terminated.

It's been a while since I posted anything on the 301 and with good reason, I've been prototyping stuff, assessing, listening et al. It turns out that I've decided not to install a bearing base clamp as it did nothing to improve thinsg and added a whole lot of extra stuff onto the 301 which only complicates things should I need to repair / modify things in the future. All I can say is that things appeared a little too well damped for my liking, some of the punch and dynamics left the deck, so, I'm afraid the base clamp had to go. Now I know why they never get installed in any other 301 . It's not all doom and gloom. I did take the oppotunity to properly couple the SME 3012 tonearm mount onto the plinth by gluing the two sutfaces together, previously I'd bolted the tonearm to the plinth but it was prone to moving and the nuts/bolts would sometimes come loose which would mean tightening them up which whilst not a massive problem was a bit of a PITA. That problem is now gone. It's hard to say if any improvement, sonically, can be heard with the improved coupling of the tonearm mount, it's certainly no worse.

I did take the oppotunity to improve the grounding / earthing wiring and I did notice slightly less hum going through the speakers which is something that I have always had an never impinges on a listening session. I've also ceased (for the time being) my experiments with room treatment. I do know that putting anything behind the speakers is a big no-no. I suffered from too much damping so lesson learned. It's interesting because I come back to this subject every so often and do try new things in new places. Sometimes I get a positive result and sometimes not. It's all good fun. I think I'd like to try some traps up in the ceiling corners and maybe some more on the walls.

Finally my SME 3009 has been to Audio Origami for a check over. It looks like it's in good order. I'm trying to get the best MONO setup I can and it's nice to know that the tonearm used for these duties is in good order. Right I think that's me done with the 301 for a while now and maybe updates as well. I'll probably update this blog with regards the MONO setup. Updates/tweaks/modifications are a little thin on the fround but I'll keep my eyes peeled. So, I'll be signing off, as ever, stay tuned.

[Chas B]

Interesting and slightly disappointing that the bearing clamp didn't work for you but you don't know 'till you try It worked well on my Lenco but maybe I won't bother with my 301.

[Jimbo]

Good you made the effort to assess the effects of the clamp but as with all things in audio sometimes things don't work out as expected. It is one of the reasons my system has stayed similar for a very long time, if it aint broke why fix it? I have experimented in every area multiple times - different amps, cartridges, turntables, cables etc and found most of the time the presentation and performance of my system went sideways or sometimes backwards and certainly not too my liking.

However tweaking room acoustics and vibration control has simply bought out the best in my system and enhanced the listening experience so they are areas that should always be constantly evaluated.

I see on another forum their is great excitement over sound decoupling devices for speakers and possibly turntables that may have some efficacy so I may try that avenue sometime but vibration modification can be a double edged sword and not always guaranteed to give you a better result as you found with your bearing clamp ? Too much control and you end up in a place that may not be where you find sonic nirvana , yes more control but not always better. I experienced this with damping material in my amps.

One area however I think you can never have enough control is vibration getting through to your turntable/ cartridge. Here I think you can go on forever looking for solutions.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Interesting and slightly disappointing that the bearing clamp didn't work for you but you don't know 'till you try It worked well on my Lenco but maybe I won't bother with my 301.

Well I guess it could have been my implementation or design, I guess you win some and then lose some.

Good you made the effort to assess the effects of the clamp but as with all things in audio sometimes things don't work out as expected. It is one of the reasons my system has stayed similar for a very long time, if it aint broke why fix it? I have experimented in every area multiple times - different amps, cartridges, turntables, cables etc and found most of the time the presentation and performance of my system went sideways or sometimes backwards and certainly not too my liking.

However tweaking room acoustics and vibration control has simply bought out the best in my system and enhanced the listening experience so they are areas that should always be constantly evaluated.

I see on another forum their is great excitement over sound decoupling devices for speakers and possibly turntables that may have some efficacy so I may try that avenue sometime but vibration modification can be a double edged sword and not always guaranteed to give you a better result as you found with your bearing clamp ? Too much control and you end up in a place that may not be where you find sonic nirvana , yes more control but not always better. I experienced this with damping material in my amps.

One area however I think you can never have enough control is vibration getting through to your turntable/ cartridge. Here I think you can go on forever looking for solutions.

Well the damping aspect of things is always an on going experiment and it's fun just messing around. I've added another storage wrack for vinyl in my listening room directly behind my listening chair so I'm not quite sure what impact that might have. Well I'm pretty far down the road of vibration control, I'm out of ideas at the moment, I'm sure something will crop up.

[Wakefield Turntables]

The Garrard 301 Restoration Project PT LXIII - MONOLOG - A sub blog! Pt III

I swear you can't make this up. I was musing about the end or slowing down of this wee blog and a couple of new developments occur. The first development has been bugging me for a while and it was that the SME 3009 seemed to have a low volume hum over the speakers, I could still enjoy the sonics but I was in the knowledge that the soundfloor wasn't as low as it could be, this was something which really annoyed me. The 301 does from time to time get dismantled for various mods, upgrades or repairs so it's no great shakes to try and solve a few problems with the deck when I'm having one of these sessions. The 3009 went to Audio Origami and came back with a full clean bill of health. I also took the oppotunity to rewire the 301 and improve the earthing. The result was a complete cure of the low volume hum over the speakers.


The plinth that I designed for the 301 has taken a few twists and turns. I aborted the bearing clamp mod last month and took on board complete coupling of the SME 3012 tonearm mount onto the plinth. The SME 3009 is presently bolted into place and the bolts can loosen over time so it's not ideal but it's OK for the time being as I mainly use the SME 3012 for listening purposes. So, this got me thinking. I can't seem to get a relevant sized piece of Panzerholz and nobody seems to want to sell any scraps so I need an alternative. Well I'd never heard of IPE before reading a thread about a tonearm made from the stuff. I have no technical details about IPE but it is said to have a damping factor near that of Panzerholz. I currently have a tonearm mount made from Panzerholz for the 3009 but it's not really the correct height. I'd like to get something made which means I don't have to mess around with an additional platter mat so that I can play MONO records properly at the correct VTA . Again, it's not really a massive problem. I just hate being in the knowledge that the tonearm isn't optimally set. Yes i'm being picky and yes I great an amazing soundstage, but could it be better???

Now the second thing which "MIGHT" happen is a new set of experimental feet for the 301. These things are supposed to sound better than a Townshend Seismic platform. I have no idea how this all works but I've heard nothing but very good things about this product. I'll write some more about these feet if they turn up in the post. It could be fun experimenting with both these new feet and my Townshend Seismic podium togther or some other variations. This will be my third footer type for the the 301 plinth, presently we have CNC machined aluminium feet using a ball bearing as isolation. The deck sounds very good in it's current guise.

I still lust after a "true" MONO cartridge for the SME 3009 but I fear I'd probably need to change tonearm for the current contenders. I think MIYAJIMA sits at the top of the tree. I've been persuaded not to go for the denon 102 but I would still like to try one if a specimen comes along at a cheap enough price. I might be able to get the best from the 102 with a heavier head shell. I'm still have quite a few things going on so all this experimentation will probably start next year. On that thought, stay tuned.....