Around Vinyl, Tonearm, Turntable
Leave a comment

GARRARD 401 Idler Driven turntable fitted with SME 3009 Improved Tonearm

 

This is one of the most classical Vinyl set up from the very best British Hi Fi age.

My 401, arrived safely with an original Garrard Box directly from the place where it was built and I’ve been told that the first owner was a passionate engineer working at BBC.  This late versions has a 16 watt motor and it runs very smoothly. For a living room set up it  stinks, but for an hi fi freak this smell is better than a Chanel #5. Technlogywise is more close to a tractor rather than a Quartz driven machine, it takes almost 20 minutes to reach the speed stability but this are  the  “core” ff the appeal of such professional and iconic tool of the best Era in the Audio World.

Doing the plint by myself I have opted for the Skeleton Concept: 2 layers of Black MDF, coped with a Sorbothane mat in order to add mass avoiding internal vibration and eventual external feedback; easy and effective.

This method allows also easy and painfree options for a second tonearm mounting.

SME and a classical Stanton 681 EEE fits very well in this classical picture.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *