Is a Garrard 401 or 301 "accurate"??

If there were an agreed upon standard by which to compare something to, the concept of “accurate” might have some meaning, but there isn’t.  On top of that, there are so many ways by which something could deviate from that ideal, there would be no way to decide which takes priority and how deviations in one measure should be weighed against deviations in another aspect of performance.  In short, accuracy is meaningless.  If the Garrard delivers musical insight and pleasure, it is performing well.

I like the punchy and weighty sound of idler tables like the Garrard 301 and 401.  A local dealer puts these tables into six figure systems based on sound and only resorts to modern tables where customers are reluctant to go with vintage tables.  I own a good modern table-Basis Debut with vacuum clamp and motor controller.  It does a better job than idler tables at suppressing ticks and pops and other noise, but, I would not argue with someone who finds the table to sound “dead” compared to an idler table.  In their particular way, the 301 and 401 are fully competitive with good modern tables.

so I guess what I'm asking is if that weighty full sound of the idler is a coloration.  An over emphasis of a certain frequency that is perhaps not true to the record??

I owned and used a Garrard 401 which received a Martin Bastin Overhaul inclusive of his Modified Platter Bearing for many years, it was used with a SME IV for a proportion of its life and was mounted in a Substantial Monolith Granite Plinth weighing in at 9 Stone.

The Bass Authority you are referring to was dominatingly present in my set up, it was able to underwhelms the Mid's, Upper Mid's and Highs.

The Plinth and Tonearm were introduced to attempt to control the coherence across the frequency range, but in fairness even though there was an improvement, the Bass remained the Authority throughout most replays.

This changed though, but not as part of my ownership, but when it was with a friend and its new owner.

I bought in a Nigel Speed Controller that was designed able to work with Lenco's and Garrards. The NSC was used on my PTP Solid Nine and it cleaned up the Bass Authority on this one very well and the Bass become much less bloomed, with a tighter note and faster decay. This really allowed the upper frequencies to project.

The NSC was used on the Garrard owed by a friend and he was so impressed he built one for his Garrard and Lenco's 

Over a period of time, a few other friends acquired Lenco based TT's to be second/third TT's and a opportunity became available to loan a Long Dog Audio Quartz Locked Speed Controller, this was used as a comparison to my NSC and My friends NSC design, at three different properties on Lenco's and Garrards, all with different Tonearm > Cartridges, the LDA was the most impressive in use by a large margin.

The use of this tightens the bass further and introduces a noticeable fast decay, where the Mid's and Highs are much further projected.

I heartily encourage a home trial of a Speed Controller on a Garrard or Lenco Idler Drive TT.

The 301 was the late Art Dudley's favorite TT. He preferred it over his Linn Sondek!