Considering selling my restored Garrard 301


AG used to be my go to source until the dealers took over but I am hoping for some  thoughts. I restored a nice 1958-9 Creme Garrard 301 oil. Fitted it with an SAEC 308L  w/Ortofon Cadenza Blue. Built a plinth using 2 layers of butcher block. 

 

While I love the deck, I am considering a more modern alternative. My question is...

Would there be people interested in buying it at a price that would enable me to purchase a comparable alternative or a trade.

Maybe I'm crazy, and perhaps it's the "bug", but I am open to queries. 

I also own a Micro Seiko BL-51 with an Acos Lustre GST 1 arm and Denon 103r

 

Hope people engage 

128x128famoej

Is the Roadrunner compatible with the AF power supply?

It is not an Artisan Fidelity PS, it is an LDA (as specified) that AF happens to sell. I have no doubt you mean "does it work with the PS the same way it worked with Phoenix Engineering’s PS?" and the answer to that is "no". It will not automatically monitor and adjust the speed. But it does stabilize the speed such that after a brief warm up I rarely need to adjust it.

The primary benefit, as described by Artisan Fidelity, it NOT to offer speed control but to instead smooth the running of the very powerful but prone-to-noise induction motor. 

fsonic, My question was prompted by your statement, "...and the Eclipse Roadrunner now sold by SOTA to monitor speed which can then be adjusted with the power supply."

I now see that you meant speed can be manually adjusted, if the Roadrunner tach shows it to be off. I originally took your statement to mean that the RR can feed back to the Artisan Fidelity supply, as it does feed back to the Phoenix Eng supply for automatic speed adjustment. I briefly owned a Mark Kelly tube-based PS for Garrard 301/401 motors. After waiting for years for Mark to finish the build, I sold it soon after taking delivery, because I realized I was not going to move forward with a Garrard 301 project. That was one of the fastest and easiest sales of audio gear, ever. It was snatched up. I am sure those units are superb.

I now see that a "Quartz LDA" is a linear power supply for Garrard induction motors, supplied by Artisan Fidelity, and that the quartz reference is to stabilize its 50Hz output frequency.  Pretty cool. AF are a pretty smart bunch of guys with their choice of products and marketing.

Pretty cool. AF are a pretty smart bunch of guys with their choice of products and marketing.

FWIW, I have never purchased a thing from AF. I am not sure if you are applying the word "marketing" with respect or snark. They do have a glitzy website for a lot of glitzy drool-worthy products. I bought my LDA PS from another dealer (in upstate NY who told me he had been a good friend of Art Dudley's) and to support my TD124. I have a different PS feeding smooth current to my 301-one that I bought from Greg Metz who in turn obtained it from Ray of Classic HiFi that looks and is the same as this https://www.ebay.com/itm/204478352678?hash=item2f9bdc0d26:g:KP4AAOSwDSRcn64b&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0NUyKS920XH4XkVK2EJaAzgZYem5Ghd7J%2BaSAuSe882ILyZU17BDPohNLmtX%2FXQVZnpBqG95tKYi%2B9B8Gio6LoAxmzLcZqyrtmTGywHGFVvqa%2BgS7HVBGxxIzDYSe53scYDrrwq%2FJQvvxaLjvH8PJe%2F%2Flnqpj3ts1RrZV8usj1vxkEJ2iyb5a9n0xE80kAHgCtBm7TaLS2Qdv6SWC4hHHA%2BJn5KWBf7dnnBwbCDPiInaE1hsSuerieSaSGPT%2FM7q%2F4rw2ULf%2BbJoPoc46w6MgXg%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8TxoaSHYw

Before buying the LDA I tried to buy a second one of the Garrard-styled units linked above and Ray told me that he could no longer source them. In the eBay listing the box says "Made in England" but I recall Ray stating that they are actually made in Russia. 

@famoej 

That should be no problem and you will increase your signal to noise ratio. ID turntables were a necessity in the past because there was no other way to adjust the speed of the platter. All motors were AC and clocked the mains frequency. Then the AR XA came out and blew everybody's minds. A dirt cheap turntable that out performed all those ID tables. I owned a TD 124 a combination belt ID table with an SME arm and even without antiskating the AR XA was seriously quieter. People will tell you that if you upgrade these old turntables you can make them quieter and you can for a short period, but the rubber idler wheel develops flat spots quickly and the rumble starts and gets slowly worse. The other problem is every bearing makes noise, some less than others, but they all make noise. The more bearings you have the more noise you make and ID tables have two unnecessary bearings. With idler wear and multiple bearings you have a rumble machine. This is the reason belt and direct drives stole the entire market dumping these old ID drive tables, which were in the beginning very inexpensive until audiophile mythology took over. If you go to any modern belt or direct drive turntable with an isolation suspension built in or added you will notice a very significant drop in noise. Whether or not you can cover the expense by selling the Garrard depends on which turntable you are looking at. It is not going to cover an SME, Avid, Basis or Dohmann, but it might cover a Sota Sapphire which you can upgrade later with the new motor and drive. It does not matter what you do with a plinth for the Garrard. There is no idler wheel turntable that will outperform a Sapphire as it ages (that statement is going to be.....very popular :-) But, if I spend a billion dollars on a plinth, new bearing and idler wheel..... You still have a turntable with too many bearings and an idler wheel that develops noise almost immediately. Why do you think ID turntables almost became extinct? Why are there not any modern ID turntables with one or two exceptions. Are you telling me that Dohmann, Basis, SME, TechDAS and Technics could not build an ID turntable if they are so much better? Old ID turntables can make wonderful music, but they are noisy which is one of the main reasons many old preamps had rumble filters. With the advent of boosted subwoofers and digital filters rumble filters are becoming popular again. 

Now I am going to get ripped into tiny pieces. 

Do these things have a 60 hz option for US. power or do they convert 60 hz AC to 50 hz AC?