Platter Upgrade for Garrard 301

Dear Jonathan, The Lenco is a "great sounding classic" too. There are those (not me, necessarily, because I haven't done the experiment) who would argue that there is not much difference between a well tuned Garrard 301 and a Lenco L75 in stock form (except you have to throw out the Lenco tonearm and use the same tonearm and cartridge on both tables). But you raise an interesting semantic issue as regards when do you stop calling your turntable a Garrard OR a Lenco, if either have been subjected to extensive parts replacements. It's not something I would lose sleep over, as long as the upgrades actually do improve performance.

Mcmprov, In addition to the Steve Dobbins and Shindo products, there is or was also a machinist in Australia who makes (or made) replacement (solid aluminum) platters and bearing assemblies for the 301. I've seen photos and the workmanship looks excellent. Total cost was under $2000. He sent me an e-mail last year but seems to have disappeared thereafter, and I've seen no mention of his product since then on any threads. I can probably dig up his old e-mail, if you're interested in following up.

Lewm, Thanks. Well, Jonathan's advice makes sense, to focus first on getting in unit in great condition, then plinth, then power. Looking at how much all of this would cost (more than I had expected), it will be quite sometime before I could afford all of these upgrades. I will revisit this issue in the future, and we will see if the guy in Australia resurfaces. I noticed that Thorens has a new top of the line. I wonder how it would compare with a tricked out Garrard 301...

All the best, Mark

Not sure why you would think of the "new top of the line" Thorens (whatever that table may be), over all the other myriad of possibilities, in lieu of the Garrard 301. Perhaps I and others shouldn't have distracted you from what was a good idea of yours in the first place. The Shindo and Steve Dobbins platters must be very expensive, and so is the Australian product, if it's still available. I would suggest you forget all about platters and just get yourself an idler (preferably Garrard or Lenco) before you spend a great deal of money on another belt drive. If you are not happy with a well tuned Garrard or Lenco in a decent plinth, you can probably get your money back out of it and go forward with another belt drive at a later time. If the cost of a professionally made plinth for an idler is also daunting, then perhaps you'd want to build one for yourself, for starters. If you are partial to Thorens products, then go for a TD124. In any case, I encourage you to take the leap. BTW, a basic used Lenco is considerably cheaper than a Garrard 301/401 OR a TD124.

I have one of Steve's Garrard 301s with his custom platter. I compared Steve's platter to the stock Garrard platter, and found that Steve's platter noticeably lowered the noise floor and improved the high-end. I recommend contacting Steve. In addition to building the plinths and providing custom platters, he does a number of mods to the 301 itself, such as improving the bearing assembly, motor speed, etc. Also, his plinths have removeable armboards, so you can optimize the armboard material for you tonearm and change tonearm size without affecting the plinth. There's a bunch of stuff he does to optimize the unit for your particular application.

I have tried a lot with Garrards the last 18 years. When I tried the Shindo bearing and platter upgrade for the 301, I have to admit that I heard it in a non-Shindo plinth, so I guess I might have missed the system synergy. It is just that I preferred the musical presentation of the original bearing+platter in my setup. I love the Shindo SPU, though.

Before you change plinth or platter, consider the Kokomo bearing. I found that this is a very cost effective, but nevertheless effective improvement over the original to such an extent, that a Kokomo'd Garrard sitting in a DIY CLD plinth was preferred by the audience to a non Kokomo'd Garrard sitting in a slate plinth some month's ago at a local Munich turntable shootout.

best regards, Hartmut