Let's talk about vintage Garrard gear

You know, I've always loved old Garrad 'tables. When I was a kid I really liked the Zero 100 aand Zero 92's with their cool tracking arm. Now, I find myself looking at Garrard 301's and 401's. Are any of these (including the zero models) any good by modern standards?

 

I don't know much about them myself, but here's a site (more than a bit biased, granted) on Garrard 301s, 401s and other models.

http://www.garrard501.com/

 

Yeah, I was looking at that site, it's one of the reasons I started thinking about Garrards again!

 

Garrards of some age are very good; the 301 is an absolute classic, and works very well (but can make more noise than a modern belt drive like vpi or linn). The 401 has less strong engineering, but again runs for ever.

I remember a review of the Zero 100 saying it was very quiet, rumble wise. I haven't got mine running yet to find out. The arm is very scary with all it's pivots and wires. I recall it rattles a lot. Other Garrards are simply bent tin autochangers, with increasing quantities of plastic.

I have a 301 for 'high speed' disks and it was my main tt for a while. It's great for that older sound. The newer, re-engineered Garrards you're looking at on the 501 site are different beasts altogether, and are made to super modern tolerances. You'll notice the price matches this.

301 and 401 often seen on eBay at various non-trivial prices, up to 2k for unused mint in original packing.

Mike
turntable junkie.

 

I used to love my Zero 100... and even carried it on my lap in an airplane during one household move! It's long gone now, though...

 

Did the wacky arm design actually live to its promise in practice (ie. reduced/no distortion)?

 

The Zero 100 was a great concept, and as record changers go, was reasonably well executed. The build quality was not up to the Dual 1200 series of that era, but still good. The arm mechanism was very delicate and easily damaged which is why there aren't a lot of them about. Several of my friends had them and the arm mechanism was problematic for them. (I have always preferred manual or semi-automatic TT's and even when I was a kid and had a portable Silvertone stereo I never played more than one record at a time. While my friends had their Garrards and Duals, I was ecstatic with my Pioneer PL-10.) The single play Garrards were much better (esp the 301), and if you're going for a vintage Garrard you should go for one of those.

 

There's a company (Loricroft?) that will take an old 301 or 401 and retrofit it with new bearings, etc. I'm told that this treatment can allow a classic 301 or 401 to sing in the same choir as many modern high end turntables.

I believe that goodish 401s go for about £200 ($300) in the UK and 301s for £300 ($450).

Of course, the arm for these was the SME Series II and the 12" was considered THE version of this to have.

Twin matching 301/401 rigs were the really cool combo because you could set up the next album in advance.

- sorry, that one doesn't quite do it for me ... :s-i-g-h:

 

There's an ok article in this month's Hi Fi World giving the history of Garrard. Indeed, the Garrard store on Picadilly, Jeweller to the Queen, was once related.
I run a Garrard 301 with a SME3009 Arm and a Goldring Cartridge. The table, supposedly, was rescured from an old school house in Norfolk where it had been used in the PA. The BBC also used them for years for broadcast. The things are built like tanks, easy to service, and to my ears you would really have to spend quite a bit to match their performance with a new table. My favourite part about them is just how quiet they are and the great bass. Oh, and I also like the fact that they play 78s. When I return to Canada, I am going to exchange my slightly knackered SME for a new Rega which I am picking up here in the UK. Jeff

 

I must second Jeff on that one.

A correctly set up, serviced and mounted 301 will run *very* quietly - more quietly perhaps even than it's "continental" contemporary - the Thorens TD124.

In the UK there are 2 schools of thought re' mounting for these types of deck. 1) The composite granite/marble route a la Slate Audio (Peter Soper), or 2) Equally large ply-sandwich construction a la Dr. Martin Bastin / Terry Sullivan - the latter is the proprietor of Loricraft.

Enjoy,
MarkM.

 

Hey MarkM, my RB250 just came today. Your Cary should be along soon! Jeff

 

Yes, one of these days I would like a white 301 with a SME3012 arm mounted on a 3 inch thick polished black marble plinth with MDF on the bottom corners with brass cones. Ahh, that should look (and sound) good!

 

I just posted my Garrard Type A II in classifieds.