Garrard 401 plinth required, any recommendations

[timhum]

Title says it all really, It seems that mass is important but there is also the birch ply camp. Being on a budget, I would like best value rather than very best performance. I will be using a 9 inch arm and the possibility of a cover would be nice.
All ideas welcome,
With thanks,
Tim

[cafe latte]

Title says it all really, It seems that mass is important but there is also the birch ply camp. Being on a budget, I would like best value rather than very best performance. I will be using a 9 inch arm and the possibility of a cover would be nice.
All ideas welcome,
With thanks,
Tim

Go as heavy as you can, I am sure there are other approaches, but when I did my commonwealth idler I first made a box from black bean and basically filled it in layer after layer. The last layer is a softer wood which I thought may add a bit of damping. If you build up a box and fill it in for mass as I did, until you have a couple of layers made up clamp the whole thing to the bench to prevent it warping and dry all the wood in the room you are working for a week or so.
Here is a link of my build.viewtopic.php?f=18&t=40784&start=15
The front looks more flash than it really is. It is just end grain cut up into equal size blocks, then arranged into a nice pattern and glued together then sanded flat using an electric sander.
Good luck with your project
Regards
CL

[timhum]

A stunning job you did there CL. Mass is the way to go it seems. I pick up the TT tomorrow and will get that right while sorting out the plinth. I will be sure to get back with whatever result is chosen.
Any more recommendations, I have no objection to buying a solution!

[cafe latte]

A stunning job you did there CL. Mass is the way to go it seems. I pick up the TT tomorrow and will get that right while sorting out the plinth. I will be sure to get back with whatever result is chosen.
Any more recommendations, I have no objection to buying a solution!

I used to live in the UK and I remember in an Ikea store (about 10 years ago but they should still have possibilites now) huge thick chopping boards, a bit like a butchers block. IMO that would be about the easiest plinth as you basically need to cut a hole for the arm and TT, add feet and job done!. Alternatively the same shop sells work tops for kitchens made from similar stuff which if I remember is sold by the meter. I would in this case put say three or four pieces on top of each other (cut all holes first though) and clamp and glue them together. Very easy to do, very massy and made of many different blocks of wood of different types so good IMO for a plinth. When glue is dry sand and put on around 5 coats of danish oil and it will look amazing, job done!!
Regards
Chris

[timhum]

Will check that out, thanks, Tim

[Mark E Smith's Dentist]

I had a birch ply built for my 401. It was really heavy and the deck bolted hard into it but it caused rumble and I couldn't bear to use the deck. I've still got the 401 though, it's been expertly overhauled and has a new idler and I'm going to try two part skeletal slate with roller blocks between the layers to see if that does it.

If that's no good I'll stick with the SP10mkII.


JT

[AudioSoul]

A stunning job you did there CL. Mass is the way to go it seems. I pick up the TT tomorrow and will get that right while sorting out the plinth. I will be sure to get back with whatever result is chosen.
Any more recommendations, I have no objection to buying a solution!

I used to live in the UK and I remember in an Ikea store (about 10 years ago but they should still have possibilites now) huge thick chopping boards, a bit like a butchers block. IMO that would be about the easiest plinth as you basically need to cut a hole for the arm and TT, add feet and job done!. Alternatively the same shop sells work tops for kitchens made from similar stuff which if I remember is sold by the meter. I would in this case put say three or four pieces on top of each other (cut all holes first though) and clamp and glue them together. Very easy to do, very massy and made of many different blocks of wood of different types so good IMO for a plinth. When glue is dry sand and put on around 5 coats of danish oil and it will look amazing, job done!!
Regards
Chris

I have seen plinths made out of the butcher block you mention. They are quite attractive. If I hadn't purchased a Birch ply model for my TD-124 thats what I would go for.

[cafe latte]

I had a birch ply built for my 401. It was really heavy and the deck bolted hard into it but it caused rumble and I couldn't bear to use the deck. I've still got the 401 though, it's been expertly overhauled and has a new idler and I'm going to try two part skeletal slate with roller blocks between the layers to see if that does it.

If that's no good I'll stick with the SP10mkII.


JT

It shouldnt rumble .When I was rebuilding my Commonwealth I would run it just propped up and listened to its chassis with a stethescope. A few things on my turntable were causing rumble, one the idler tyre, two the idler bearing and the main bearing. Fortunatly the main bearing was not worn it was just a pitted ball bearing causing its noise and the wrong lube. I experimented with different lubes and eventually got it silent. The idler bearing was very noisy, it is a brass sleeve bearing. Even after replacement it took a while of running to bed in with me flushing it with oil from time to time. I left it running for hours just propped up while I did this. The idler tyre gave me the most trouble though, I tried adding an O ring tyre to the tyre this although very quiet ran slow. The fix was eventually two things one the idler was not running square to the platter so it was scrubbing, and two the rubber was a bit hard so I took it to a friends and I used his laith to take a few mm of rubber off to get to the softer stuff underneath while also making the idler perfectly round.
When I finally got to mount it in the new plinth it was totally without rumble with any cart even at very high volumes.
If your turntable rumbles I doubt it is an issue with the plinth, the plinth can only do so much, there must be a problem somewere even if it has been overhauled. My Commonwealth runs virtually silent listening with a stethescope without its plinth. Spin the idler with the platter off while listening to check the idler bearing, this is often missed when lubing also. Make sure there is the correct oil in the main bearing, if it is still noisy flush it and relube. Dont forget to check the motor mounts and make sure the motor bearings are properly lubed too as this was also a source of noise with my turntable. If it is your idler wheel I would be contacting the person who overhauled it.
Here is my Commonwealth totally siezed when I got it.
viewtopic.php?t=34547

Regards
CL

[jloveys]

Here is the least expensive Garrard 401 plinth : vodka glasses !
…and it sounds great, we used it with Thomas Schick with very good results...

[cats squirrel]

shows a massive plinth is not necessary, then, Jean!!

[cafe latte]

shows a massive plinth is not necessary, then, Jean!!

It just shows there is more than one way to skin a cat My feeling is you 'get away with more' with a large plinth.
Regards
CL

[Trackside]

The thing it's sitting on looks big and massive and glass will couple whatever is sitting on it.

[cafe latte]

The thing it's sitting on looks big and massive and glass will couple whatever is sitting on it.

Very true I missed that!
Regards
CL

[paulstewart]

I have had 3 401s over the years, the first was in an SME plinth an was horrible. It microphoned like hell, so I took in out of that and put it in a 1" marble sheet on short oak legs. Sounded very good but had a bit of smearing. With the second one I had a reasonable copy of the Loricraft idea. This sounded very good indeed and led me to meet Terry O'Sullivan at Loricraft to buy a lid. Nigel Pearson, he technical guy at Loricraft and I discussed their reasoning behind a medium mass plinth (although it is still pretty heavy) and the use of the famous squash balls first advocated by Harold Leak. Any rigid material will store energy and it would need several tons of effective mass to control the vibrational energy put out by the cartridge. Most materials will reflect this back, hence the smearing on my marble effort. The squash balls allow this energy to dissipate, and in their skeletal plinth or their full jobby you get a very clean sound with a great imaging ability, better than any high massed 401, 301 or for that matter TD124 I've heard. I ended up with my 3rd 401 in a Loricraft plinth which I used to develop some accessories for them for use with the then new 501. You should check them out at http://www.garrard501.com, as they are the true Garrard experts.