Garrard 301-Worth the effort?

WOW - that's one helluva nice friend to give you a grease bearing 301!

Nope...not yet.

3009 is an OK start but preferably a Type II.
I do not know much about the type V on up.
All depends on the cartridge that you want to mate it with.

Ironically my listening room was damaged (water incursion)by the torrential rains of Hurricane Irene.
Fortunately no equipment was damaged at all but the carpet, walls, etc. got badly damaged. Still working on finding people to fix it up (to better than it was).
I run all tube equipment into stacked QUAD ESL57s with IMF/KEF subs.
Sad to have my system down right now with the Holidays and all - so enjoy yours when you can.

Merry Christmas! :^)

Talk about a serious Garrard 301, they just launched a new reference model 301 at Artisan Fidelity I emailed Christopher about the design features, am eagerly awaiting his answer :) I am totally drooling over this table about now...price has yet to be announced. I know this one has a buyer already unfortunately...that is one lucky guy.

http://www.artisanfidelity.com/Garrard-301-.html

Jeremy: Now that is a gorgeous table. Proportionally very nice.

Jhendrixfan,
Be careful with the Kokomo bearing with the ceramic ball. There have been numerous accounts of the ceramic ball wearing a dimple into the thrust surface of the Garrard spindle. Apparently it doesn't take much time, either. You would be better off using a ball that's softer than the bearing spindle so you don't damage that expensive part.

The AF products look beautiful, no doubt about it. Beauty is what they are selling and rightfully so. However, I really do not think that they have a bunch of physicists working for them who scientifically calculated the design of the plinth so as to maximize the performance of the Garrard or Lenco. I think it is much more likely that they are following after information that was/is made available to them mostly via the internet, that provides guidelines for how to construct a decent plinth. (See Lenco Heaven, for example.) Of course, that same information is available to any and all of us, as well. Much of it came from Jean Nantais and others and was freely given on the various chat sites. My point is that if one is strapped for cash but skilled in wood and metalworking (and/or knows a good water-jet guy), terrific plinths can be made for a fraction of the cost of an AF plinth, plinths that equal in performance what can be bought for high cost from companies that make plinths (not to single out AF; I too love their work). Such plinths usually will not look as good, however.