My
story :
In 1999 I bought a legendary classic turntable which
I thought would be my last one - a Linn LP 12 Sondek with Ittok tonearm and a
cartrdige from Benz, the Glider. I originally planned to upgrade it with Lingo,
Linto, Ekos and Arkiv - all the way up the Linn ladder.Around the time I
bought the Linn I also entered the fascinating world of the internet, and I soon
discovered that this was a great resource for a turntable nut to get all the
information about turntables I ever dreamed of.I also read british hifi
journals at that time, and in an issue of Hifi World I saw an article about
all-time british classic turntables from Garrard, the 301 and the 401, and I
began to search the internet for information on these turntables.
So what had to happen happened indeed - within 6
months I found a nice 301 at Classique Sounds in Leicester and I bought it for
220 UKP (including delivery to Germany).I quickly built a sturdy plinth
using the ideas of the guys at Loricraft, especially their way to decouple the top plate by
using rubber balls placed in the corners of the plinth.My first attempt had
a Sumiko Premier MMT and a AT1005/II from Audio Technica mounted as tonearms
(see the last picture below).
I then realized that a true 301 has to be equipped
with SME arms, and so I tried to find the classics Series II models. Luckily I
found them quite fast (read my story behind my Thorens TD 124s) and so here¡¯s
the 301 with SME 3009 and 3012 : |