The Hub: Want a Garrard idler-drive?


In my Lenco entry, I mentioned the trickle-down effect that occurs when an object of desire becomes too dear. 301s and TD-124s become too costly, folks start looking at alternative idler-wheel tables, like Lenco...or the Garrard seen here.

The builder/seller started with what he calls a "Lab A II" changer; I'm familiar with the early '60's Type A and the later Lab 80 and 95, so I'm not sure what this thing was. FWIW, the Type A sold for $79.50 back in 1964, while the competing Dual 1008 was $94.50; believe it or not, 2009 dollar-equivalents are $572 and $680, respectively.

The "A" was a familiar sight worldwide, made in the zillions by Garrard, and memorable for its white-plastic "claw" changer mechanism and headshell. All that cheesy stuff was removed from this project, which is a good thing.

Member "Ekpaphp" has gone the high-mass route with the base, using solid poplar topped with a "dense epoxy ground stone plate", which sounds rather like a Kenwood KD-500. He's added a Sugden Connoisseur SAU2 arm, which was a decent arm, although I haven't seen one since I visited Frank Van Alstine's basement in 1978. Throw in a B&O cart, and you've got a unique package ready to go for only $169. Quite a deal, which is why it sold almost instantly.

I'm often impressed by the vision and dedication shown by our member-builders, and I certainly am by this effort. Ekpaphp, ol' buddy, I think you could've sold it for double what you did. Nice work.

That's all from your tryptophan-addled blogger. Think of it as "Blog Light".
audiogon_bill
Back in the day when tables were abundant, the common consensus was that idler drive was an older and lesser drive mechanism compared to newer belt or direct drive tables.

Was this wrong or has something changed to make these more desirable other than their desirability as an artifact from the past that might still get the job done, more or less?

It is a cool looking unit going (gone) at a relatively low price for this site though, I must say.
During Thanksgiving Day my father-in-law was sneaking bits of turkey meat to his dog "Martin" when my cousin ratted him out to my mother-in-law (age 83). Cousin feigned worry that he would put "Martin" to sleep with the turkey feedings. My mother-in-law didn't understand his comment and he explained that turkeys have tryptophan in them which causes this effect. She was quite surprised by this information and queried as to when they started injecting turkeys with tryptophan.
Sorry for the off subject response but this was just too funny to keep to myself!
Thank you for both comments.

There are good tables of all types. Seems to me it's toughest to make a really good direct drive, as all sources of vibration and noise are fed right into the platter, and directly under the cartridge.

Tryptophan is the last thing I worry about in modern turkeys!
Best idler drive I owned was a Dual 1219. Used for years, then served duty with my son A great table in its day and have fond memories of this venerable performer.