The BBC LS3/5a, a voice still to be reckoned with.

Might be worth the trip, after reading how they've located some of the original OEM suppliers. Certainly would not be a cheap undertaking to get a full refurb on the 301!

 

Wow...

http://www.oaktreeent.com/Stereo_Turntables_and_CD_Players.htm

I just stumbled onto this site looking for H/K gear, and they're listing a Garrard 301 for $1299!

 

Garrard 301

In a phrase, love or money (well maybe money) won't separate me from my 301.

The Garrard 301, the company of which coincidentally was the official jeweler to the British Royal family, was so well built that it usually does not need more refurbishment than some white grease and a check to see if the idler wheel is eccentric. So I am not quite sure what those fellows at Loricraft are up to.

I wrote them a few times to get a North American spec pulley from them, but not once did they reply. (My table came from a school house PA in Norfolk.) I ended up having Martin Bastien spin one up for me on his garden shed lathe.

As they were originally sold without a plinth, the plinth you find them can range from the flimsy to the sublime. I am using a home built jobbie. There is even a fellow that makes a business in the UK of selling plinths made out of granite. I have been sorely tempted, but then the table weighs a hundred pounds or so. A new automotive power coat would not go amiss either, as many of them suffer from the dreaded dustbug mark. There are also reproductions of the controls that often snap with age.

What I like about the 301 is that it is dead reliable, has the best bass of any turntable I have ever owned or heard, has 78 and pitch control, and is likely to survive nuclear Armageddon. It also plays dead quiet, somehow letting through more music and less ticks, pops, snap crackle and pop than anything else I know. I think it was for this that it was for many years the standard BBC broadcast table.

I understand that the Thorens TD??, which I think the Garrard is really a rip off of, are even better.

Jeff

 

Tannoy speakers are so wonderful.
I looked for the Churchill but couldn't find it, is it out of production? Shame, it was amazing and "only" around eight grand. Very tube-friendly too.
http://www.smr-home-theatre.org/ces2002/loudspeakers/image_027.shtml

Dan C

 

Oops, make that more like fifteen grand.
http://store.teleconsystems.com/Details/d_churchill.htm

 

No question, bespoke big domestic Tannoy DCs are expensive.
However, I built a pair for US$400, US$300 for the cost of the drivers, US$100 for reconditioned crossovers from Lockwood in the UK + some old cabs that someone's wife was threatening to throw out. (Supposedly the drivers came from the tear down of the Phantom of the Opera set in New York. I didn't believe it either until I found a Phantom sticker on one.)
When I am feeling more plush, I am going to get a custom cabinet maker build me a pair of GRFs. That said, I still want a pair of LS3/5as.
Jeff
PS If anyone has a pair of Blacks for sale.... You know who to ring
.

 

Re: Garrard 301

I'm surprised that an idler-wheel turntable can sound so good. Guess I have memories of cheap changers in the back of my mind. They say it takes a few revolutions to get up to speed--that massive platter must be awesome! I'm still trying to locate a picture of the Garrard changer that quite a few relatives owned. I found one that is close (the same tonearm with the vinyl woodgrain insert and black headshell), but not the same controls.

I'm sure Loricraft isn't "up to" anything, but it looks like you'll pay a pretty penny for their services. You figure that as these turntables get older and passed around, they could need anything from a relube and a fresh idler wheel to a total overhaul needing new knobs and a total disassembly and refinish. Who knows how many of these are stuck away in attics, cellars or even surplus warehouses, neglected for a couple of decades?

 

301s with their idler wheels, I agree, shouldn't sound good, but they do. The other scary thing is how fast they do spin up to speed. The AC motor they employ is huge! People do say that their is some noise from the bearing that more modern designs circumvent, but I have never really noticed it.
Garrard seriously sullied their name with all the cheap changers that followed, but the 301 and 401 I would imagine can still hold their own with many good tables today.

There's a good write up on Garrard here:

http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/hfw/featureshtml/garrardhistory.html

My criticism with Loricraft is that though they claim to have every part available for Garrard 301 and 401s, including pulleys, they couldn't even bother to respond to my inquiry as to the price. I must have emailed them three times. As it was, I had to wait 6 months to get a North American pulley and that had to be custom made. (I brought my whole system over from the UK). Jeff

 

The changers I was familiar with were far better than a lot of the "junk" being peddled back then. Others had a clunky mechanical sound--the Garrards were always quiet and smooth. Definitely not something you'd find with one of those "flip/78" needles on a ceramic cartridge.

That huge platter acts as a flywheel, so it's not really too surprising it is so stable in speed, and so quiet.

 

Th LS3/5A needs a very good amp to sound the best. Although a modestly priced speaker, my experience has been that they are ruthlessly revealing of the upstream components, and are often teamed up with an inappropriate amplifier.

Regards,
Geoff

 

I bought my LS35a speakers in 1975. They are the only component I have kept for over 20 years, and I have had no problems with them. They are currently in my small system mated to Creek integrated amp and Linn Genki CD player - all British, all musical. Great speaker, still astonishing for their size.

 

Makes perfect sense to me, Steve. A lot of people seem to forget that a speaker can only sound as good as what is fed into it. Garbage in = garbage out.

 

They are Rogers, Steve. I think they are teak cabinets with black grilles and a plastic Rogers emblem in the top right corner. Let me take the opportunity to thank you for your work on all the DCC LPs and CDs I enjoy so much.