Gromit's music centre...

[Rare Bird]

Nice to see the SME bed plate uniform to the motor unit, why people always have this compulsion to mount them at an angle is beyond me..looks very neat Rich. nice Audiotech frame aswell..be nice with a loverly slab of granite..Why have i got this urge to buy another '401' even though i have no intension's on going back to vinyl!

[Barry]

Nice to see the SME bed plate uniform to the motor unit, why people always have this compulsion to mount them at an angle is beyond me..looks very neat Rich. nice Audiotech frame aswell..be nice with a loverly slab of granite..Why have i got this urge to buy another '401' even though i have no intension's on going back to vinyl!

To achieve the maximum range of stylus overhang (and hence minimum tracking error), the bedplate of the SME arm needs to be aligned along a radius from the centre of the turntable (i.e. the spindle).

Mounting the bedplate parallel to one side of the turntable will reduce the range of adjustment. For some turntables this is the only possible option: on the Thorens 124, for example, the arm board is not wide enough to allow full radial alignement. Usually, on my TD124s, I use an armboard where the bedplate is aligned parallel to the right-hand edge of the turntable and this is sufficient for the great majority of cartridge/headshell combinations. Recently however, I have been using a Decca/EMT headshell + adapter and this required me to change the armboard to one with a near-radial bedplate alignement, otherwise there would not have been correct stylus overhang.

Sometimes aesthetics has to give way to essentials - though I agree parallel alignment has a certain elegance about it.

Regards

[Rare Bird]

Ger out with thi, theres plenty room for adjustment how he has it...i'd agree if it was just a sloppy stick it there it will doo fitting!

[Barry]

Ger out with thi, there's plenty room for adjustment how he has it...i'd agree if it was just a sloppy stick it there it will doo fitting!

The arm is already as far back as it can go in the bedplate. Fortunately there is some adjustment available in the Sumiko headshell. If an SME headshell was being used, there would be no further room for adjustment.

[Marco]

Hi Richard,

Hope you're continuing to enjoy your superb 401

Just a thought regarding mats... You may want to try using a Rubato copper mat on your Garrard.

The reason I'm suggesting this is because there's a school of thought which says that because there exists that huge lump of metal underneath the platter (called the motor ), that it generates a magnetic field and also causes eddy currents which adversely interfere with the response of the cartridge, consequently affecting its accurate retrieval of high frequency information.

I'm not necessarily referring to the 'veiled top-end' many people mention of Garrards (I don't really agree with that), but simply a subtly deliterious effect which may exist that you're not currently aware of. I've heard enough of this effect with T/Ts to believe that it's a very real issue for any turntable which has its motor unit and/or PSU underneath the platter.

Therefore at some point I'd advise you to try the Rubato copper mat, which due to the copper used in its construction, acts as an effective shield against stray magnetic fields and eddy current interference. Guy Sergeant of Puresound stocks them, and I'm sure if you ask him nicely he'll send you a sample to try. It also performs as a very good T/T mat in its own right.

Either that or obtain a thin plate made from MuMetal, drilled out in the centre for the spindle, which fits the circumference of your platter, pop it on, and then place the mat of your choice on top.

I'm confident that if you were to try either of the above that it would result in an even better sound than you're getting now

ATB,
Marco.

[Gromit]

Hi Marco - I'd certainly be up for giving the copper mat a try, would be an interesting excercise. I too am slightly confused by this notion of a 'veiled' treble which certain journos have accused the Garrards of posessing; I spend every day of my working life in fairly close proximity to a drum kit and the 401 has a quite uncanny ability to render cymbal colour (one thing these chaps seem to knock the Garrard for not portraying 'correctly') in a convincing manner without any sort of 'hifi' embellishment. It's not a bright turntable - but on the other hand if there's treble energy there it'll certainly let you know.

I'll drop a line to Guy at any rate. My first priority is to get my 401 running sweetly though, it could do with a good service after which it'll be time to start building it up.

[Marco]

I agree about the Garrard, as the good ones I've heard are not veiled sounding in the slightest.

It's like any other properly designed piece of equipment - you hear the frequency extremes with music when they're meant to be there, and not artificially superimposed onto everything in order to create a false 'excitement factor', like most equipment today

Regarding the Rubato copper mat, yes, I'd put that pretty high up on your tweaking 'things to do' list, once you've got a proper handle on the sonic and musical signature of your 401.

In the meantime, enjoy!

Marco.

[Gromit]

Couple more piccies...





We've been furnishing our new place, and to tidy things up where the hifi is concerned we went for this solid oak shelving unit. It weighs a ton (not literally of course!) but certainly takes 2 people to lift it safely. I was initally slightly concerned that it wouldn't help in terms of the Garrard's sonics, seeing that it used to be sat on a dedicated turntable table (Audiotech). I needn't have worried though - it works really well, and rumble/background noise it still pretty much non-existent.

And the increase in WAF has been worth the hassle.

[Rare Bird]

Awesome i love sparce but comfy rooms..love berber type carpets ..

[Gromit]

Awesome i love sparce but comfy rooms..love berber type carpets ..

Thanks Andre - you're very kind.

A few more pics...







I'm loving my Garrard now - the speed issues it had when I first got it have now pretty much disappeared, which makes me think the thing just really needed some use (it does anything between 4-6 hours playing a day at the moment). It now sounds fabulous, and Johnnie's re-working of the 3009 has been little short of miraculous...it truly sounds like a different arm since it was re-wired/serviced and adjusted.

Mind you, it still doesn't stop me hankering after something like the 12" Jelco.