Garrard 301 - Project

The matching of cartridge to an analogue rig is primarily a consideration of the tonearm.  The Rosewood Signature Platinum is best used with a high effective mass tonearm.  The cartridge will sound very good even when the match is not ideal, but, it will sound its best with such an arm.  My local dealer sold a lot of those cartridges, mostly with Ortofon arms, and mostly with Garrard 301 and 401 and Thorens 124 tables.  I don’t know why, but he did not like AudioSilente idler wheels.  Unlike most fans, he also prefers the oil bearing to grease bearing; he said that the grease bearing sounds good, but it takes a very long time to heat up and sound good.  

I understand you are getting the Rosewood Signature Platinum (outstanding choice in my opinion).  Koetsu cartridges are somewhat unique in terms of having a rich, warm sound without being murky.  If you own just one cartridge, that is a great choice.  I understand you have multiple arm wands, so you will have other choices. 

Interestingly, I know a few Garrard and Thorens idler fans who own Rosewood Signature Platinum cartridges who like the Audio Technica ART 1000 cartridge.  It is a different sound, not quite as warm, but it is very good.  I would add that to your candidate list.

It seems like you will be having a lot of fun messing with different setups, accessories, etc.  

My local dealer puts 301, 401 and Thorens 124 tables into ultra expensive systems.  He likes the Ortofon tonearms with these tables.  This past weekend, he was showing off a extremely pretty to look at 301 in a gloss veneer plinth and a brand new Tri-planar tonearm.  That is the one quite expensive arm he likes and a customer was interested in it.  When Koetsu folded up shop, he bought as many cartridges that were still available that he could find.  For this table, he used an Urushi Vermillion from his remaining stock.  The system with this table in it sounded fantastic--bold, big and lush.  

I like Telefunkens, but, I never considered them to be tonally rich sounding tubes.  The ones I heard were very lively and dynamic sounding, but, considerably leaner than the likes of Mullard and Amperex.  The Telefunkens that I ended up using in my phono stage are ECC803S tubes that are very expensive.  They came in their original box,  This was quite a while ago when there were some concerns about fakes, but, the Chinese had not yet perfected the fake diamond molded into the bottom of the tube.  The box looked suspiciously clean and new, but the ends crumbled when I opened them, which indicated that t boxes were very old.  

For warmer sound, I like Amerex Bugle Boy 12AX7s.  

As I mentioned above, I run genuine, old, Telefunken ECC803S tubes in my phono stage.  These take the Telefunken clarity and dynamics even further out to the extremes than the ECC83 tubes.  I like them in my system, but I don’t think they have universal appeal.

If I were to pick a tube as being universally good and likable by everyone, it would be a Bugleboy.  These are on the warm side, but, they have good clarity and are lively sounding.  I don’t know of anyone who hates their sound.

Limited, and not growing supply (Chinese fakes don’t count), and high demand did  that to the price.  I’ve had mine for many years and they are still going strong.

I am not in the hunt for any tube.  I already have my preferred tube and I expect it to outlast me.  My only significant concern is with securing enough output tubes in my amp to last to the end.  I run four 349 output tubes.  Those are very rare and expensive.  The other extremely rare tube I run are 348s and I have spares and the really cheap 6F7 can be used as a substitute so I don't have to worry about that tube type.  Slightly more findable are the 310a and 310b that I run.