48 August2019nstereophile.com
48Aug8gscomponent—will be made available
separately or only as a package.
One might suggest that the 2019
Garrard 301 turntable is thus less Fiji
Mermaid than 1992 Porsche 959
(the latter a limited run of cars made
from leftover parts, four years after
production had ceased)—but it has the
potential to be more than that. In its
day, the original 301 was one of two
motor units regarded as the best and
was priced within the reach of most se-
rious hobbyists: Over 60,000 of them
had been sold by the time its plug was
pulled. If all goes well— if Garrard can
make a smooth and seamless transition
from NOS and reconditioned parts
to new ones, if consumer demand is
sufficient, and if the price can be kept
sane—being able to buy the new 301
could become the audiophile’s version
of being able to buy a new Mercedes
300SEL or Leica M3. Which is to say,
a dream come true.
I’ll know sooner rather than later:
I’ve accepted SME/Garrard’s offer of
the first review sample, and I’ll let you
know how it compares to my 1959
original.tion—why our ranks include so few
women—and it’s likely I never will,
but I’m sure it doesn’t lie in loathing
ourselves and putting the other gender
on a pedestal. When you worship half
the population, the law of averages
suggests you’re worshiping at least as
much ugliness, stupidity, and nastiness
as beauty, wisdom, and kindness. A
better approach likely lies, as it almost
always does, in being more generous to
others, not stingier to ourselves. nexhausted stocks of parts
with us, and in all prob-
ability will be available
by 2021.” Shirke also
mentions that SME has
recently broken down
“quite a few platters...
for exact metallurgical
analysis. Ditto for the motors, because
we do not believe in making new mo-
tors of a different design or technology.
The new motor will exactly be the
same design and will employ the same
wiring methods as well as operational
strategies.
“With regard to the two points I
have touched here, let me clarify that
quite a few ‘restorers’ are using ma-
chined platters, and some have tried to
‘improve’ the drives. We firmly believe
in the opposite, and that is the unique
point. This is and will be an exact Gar-
rard transcription motor.” Shirke added
that his company will not distinguish
between the first wave of new 301s,
built with new-old-stock and restored
parts, and the next wave, manufactured
from all new parts, in terms of price.
That bit of information was aful that even the few who weren’t took
the time either to read the piece or to
have it read to them by a patient young
person, hopefully one who left out the
words dick and douchebag.
But here’s the thing I apparently
failed to get across: It’s fine that you’re
an audiophile, and if you’re a man,
that’s fine, too. There’s nothing wrong
with either of those conditions, at least
one of which is an accident of birth. I
still don’t have an answer to the ques-got in touch with SME
and asked for clarifica-
tion. The response
came from Ajay
Shirke, the chairman
of Cadence Audio,
which owns SME,
Spendor, Siltech, Crys-
tal Cable—and now
Garrard. Shirke stated
that the first wave of
new Garrard 301s are
being built with the
existing stock of parts
from the brand’s previ-
ous owner, Loricraft,
as well as some newly
manufactured parts,
the latter made using
tools, jigs, and molds
from the original Gar-
rard factory. According
to Shirke, while SME
continues to tool up
for making brand-new
platters and bear-
ings, parts from their
existing stock, though
not newly cast, are put
topic of particular
controversy in early
reporting: The price
originally published on
stereophile.com and
elsewhere, supplied
preshow by a Cadence
employee not directly
involved with the 301
project, proved to be
in error. As Shirke
explains, “the price is
not yet finalised.” He
adds that the com-
pany is still considering
various issues, such as
whether the turn-
table and its compan-
ion arm—an SME
M2/12R, itself a new
incarnation of a classicthrough “the same process of making
[them]” to ensure that they are up to
spec. He adds that, “even in the days
gone by,” bearing spindles and other
parts were “made for Garrard by SME,
so a lot of tooling and technical data is
still preserved and available [here].”
As for the motors that will appear
in the first wave of new 301s, Shirke
says they’re “from stock or donor units
[and] are fully refurbished... to obtain
all exact values as the Garrard specs
for them when new (resistance values
and all other parameters, start time,
torque), as are the idler wheels and the
magnetic units (eddy current) for the
fine speed control system.” Castings
for the housings of new Garrard 301
motors, like the forthcoming new
platters, “are in process of development
and will be available when we have
SOMETHING FOR THE LADIES
Allow me to close with a few words
about my Listening column in the
April Stereophile, in which I attempted
to discuss the relative paucity of
women in our pastime while avoiding
mention of physical endurance, gender-
specific hunting and gathering instincts,
or home decorating. That column at-
tracted more than a few letters, and I’m
pleased to say that most of them were
thoughtful—and I’m nonetheless grate-
Let me clarify
that quite a few
‘restorers’ are
using machined
platters.