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Wednesday, April 13, 2016

The beauty and the beast - Garrardzilla!





The "beauty" is the overall beauty of our beloved 301... the "beast" is the bronze heavy platter and matching giant, oversized, heavy-duty bearing.














A combo born in heaven... and most important, such an audible improvement... no hypes, folks:
 only
two good ears;-) are needed to appreciate it!
'nuff said.




3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are the reason that I bought a 301. I must say though, that after cleaning, lubing and setup that my 301 isn't as good as my modified Dual 1229. I use a Grace 747 tonearm on the Dual and a SME 3009 tonarm on the 301. The motor on my Dual is dead silent. But the Garrard motor even after rebuild can still be heard. The same is true of a friends 401. I am wondering how you were able to silence Garrardzilla's motor?

Norman

twogoodears said...

Hi Norman... glad and worried about that;-) my 301 is DEADLY silent... I stripped it down, some years ago, lubed and aligned and cleaned from some debrises mixed in old oil... new springs and nothing more... I'm just wondering about your statement and trouble, Norman: is it a noise you hear during music pauses in a silent room, when near to the table or is it a rumble you hear when playing a disc? Is the rubber intermediate wheel new, lubed at bushing or a worned out one? Are you using a 60hz brass idler or using an external, regulated PSU? This isuue MUST BE solved, Norman;-)! Cheers.

Anonymous said...

Stefano,

I am really happy to know that the table should be silent! I couldn't understand how anyone could say how wonderful the 301 is with that motor noise. I personally rebuilt my Dual, removing it's automatic features, replacing the tonearm and doing a major cleaning and motor rebuild. When I bought the 301, I sent it to a local audio repair shop for rebuild. It came back very clean. After the motor runs for maybe ten minutes, it makes a low growling noise that I can hear from my seat just a meter or two away. It isn't rumble I hear, the platter (I have the black platter) is very stable and the rubber idler tire is soft and it's bearing looks good. My audio shop said that all the older Garrard motors make noise when they heat up. My friends 401 makes a similar noise after maybe an hour or so of use. I am using the correct 60hz brass idler. My rubber idler wheel, and motor springs are original. They have only been cleaned. They look good. Should I change them? My turntable came from a local radio station, so it's had many years of constant use.
After reading your post, I am going to spend sometime this morning and take the table apart myself.
Thanks so much for responding.
Norman