Revamp Garrard 301, keep Oracle V or move along?

first, you can't go wrong whichever. the Oracle V is quite a good tt. your 301 is quite the beauty too. nice job on the plinth. it does not get much better than the Io Sig.

if i were you i would find another arm board for your Garrard and mount the SME V on it with the Koetsu RSP. this should tell you quite a bit about which tt rocks your world better. my opinion is that your Rega arm is holding back the 301.

personally; i have a Garrard 301 with custom Steve Dobbins (about 90 pound constrained layer) plinth, a Triplaner, the Kokomo bearing upgrade, and i use the Loricraft PSU 301 AR power supply. i did have the Koetsu RSP on it until recently. it was a killer combination! my opinion is that the Oracle V would not be in the same league with a fully optimized 301.....but i'm guessing a little......i do think your Quads would sing with the energy from a fully tweaked 301.

my only concern would be the combination of the Koetsu RSP, the SME V and the Garrard. all three tend to have a bit of mid-bass fullness (the Garrard more a general roundness--particularly from what i hear about the grease model of the 301) and the combo might be too much of a good thing. i think the SME/RSP combo works with the leanness of the Oracle V. the neutrality of the Triplaner was the balance in my system.

synergy is always key to musical magic.

i know you asked questions i'm not answering but the first thing is to settle on which tt to focus on; then you get into where that goes.

Thanks Mike,

I was hoping you might chime in. You certainly have a admirable main system that I have envied for some time.With the addition of the Garrard and Technics you have a perspective that most of us will never get close to. I understand what you're saying about synergy. The Oracle/Sme/RSP combo was put together with the consideration of flattening our the potential bloat of the sme.

I can certainly afford to try say, a Triplanar on the Garrard and go from there. I have a lightly used Helikon that migh work with the combo. I must get from you contact infromation for Steve Dobbins...his work is gorgeous. Have you though of any 12" arms?

Thanks,

Nkj.

Nkj, thanks for the kind comments.

Steve's e-mail address is vetterone@msn.com.

i have not yet had a 12" arm in my system. Steve is nearing completion of my Technics SP-10 Mk3 plinth and i'm leaning toward the 12" SME 312s for it initially (Albert Porter's feedback has been influential also).

the Triplaner i think is 10.5 inches.

the more i read about the pro's and con's of 12" arms the less i'm feeling a need to go that way.

i will have room for 4 arms and cartridges plus the Rockport. sorry to say my budget won't allow for all the cartridges and arms i would like......for quite awhile (i would love to add an Aesthetix phono stage too when budget permits).