garrard 401 the definitive true

dougdeacon ,your recomendation about a big tonearm for my garrard?

audiofeil, what is your recomendation in tonearms?

Agree with the previous posts (except disagree with Elizabeth about the tonearm).

The other tables you mentioned will not better or even match the performance of a well maintained and modded 401. Unless you're motivated strictly by their looks, forget the shiny new stuff. Sonically your table has the potential to be in a different league.

Put your funds toward optimizing that excellent table and acquiring a top level arm.

No. The 401 platform is an out dated technology, easily bettered by all belt drives. Rim drive, no matter what platform or arm is. VPI's version of rim tech is no better. oracle mk5 will sound much better. I had a 401 and found it very disappointing. It is an 'englishman' thing. Move on.

If you give up your Garrard 401, my guess is you'll find unsatisfying the comparative lack of drive in the other turntables you mentioned. There are two meaningful upgrades you can make if you're inclined to make improvements: 1/ Abandon the granite plinth in favor of either slate, or a Shindo-style layered hardwood alternative. Both will sound different from granite, but significantly better, sonically. 2/ The SME 309 is a well-made tonearm but not ideal. In upgrading your plinth you could also build for a 12" tonearm or both 12" and 9", with a change in cartridges to better extract the tone density possible from that turntable. Of course, the tonearm choice will be affected by your cartridge preferences, and vice-versa.

Phil

Mount a better tonearm and you'll have a killer front end.

IMO