What to look for when buying a 301/401?

[Andrew]

Title says it all, I'm tempted but don't know enough and might get burnt. What should I look out for, if I go down this route?

thanks,

-- Andrew

[david counter]

good place to start is this article by Haden Boardman
http://www.classicaudio.ru/static.ph...ticles_garrard
gives a lot of background and pitfalls

[Andrew]

Thanks, David, that's exactly the sort of thing I was after...

cheers,

-- Andrew

[Shane]

And then of course there's this...
http://www.garrard501.com/faq.html

[James D]

Andrew,

The words on the bottom right hand corner:

Lenco GL-75
or
Lenco GL-78

That should do it and save you a fortune

James

[Clive]

Originally Posted by James D

That should do it and save you a fortune

Not so sure nowadays. I've seen 401's at about £200, some Lenco's aren't that far off this now. Even if Lencos are £90 vs £200 for a 401 I'd simply get the deck you prefer, the difference in cost isn't very significant. Whichever you get, get a good one, which comes back to your original question.

You need a quiet motor, good main bearing, free running and round idler. All obvious but hard to assess!

[Hugo1]

My GL75 was £46 off ebay, some of which I have recovered by selling the arm and plinth.

[Black Stuart]

Hugo,
I should be getting my Lenco 78 delivered today. it looks to have an atractive plinth, which I have an idea I maybe able to 'infill' and so keep but he arm I don't want, what kind of price do they go for?

Black Stuart

[Hugo1]

My Lenco 75 arm went for about £10, but the seller only wanted the headshell!

[Clive]

My 301 cost £150, yes this is a lot more that £46 but there are 2 ways of looking at these costs.

1) put togther a deck for the minimum possible

2) prices like £46 (or £10!) look tiny compared to £150 or £200 for the Garrards (can be much higher too). But....my 301 has replaced my GyrOrbe/HR which retails at around £1,600. The cost differences between different idlers seen in this context doesn't look very significant.

Anyone going down route 1) must mainly look at Lencos. Coming from the perspective of 2) then your choices open up albeit at extra cost but in context these differences are small. Once arm and cartridge (even time to build a plinth) are included the %age difference between Lenco/Garrard/Thorens are in reality not that great.

I say buy whatever you come across that is in good nick and is the deck that you like the look of.