new turntable

[bitterfruit]

A friend of mine was moving from Atlanta and wasn't able to take his grandmother's turntable/radio/furniture with him so he asked if I wanted it. No hesitation on my part. The turntable wasn't working at the time, but I hauled it to South Carolina where a close friend's family owns an electronics repair shop. A piece called the "idler" needed to be rebuilt. Plays well, sounds great.

[Patrick]

Idler-wheel drive turntables are all the rage now among audiophiles. I count myself among this group. I got rid of my $3500 Acoustic Solid belt drive turntables a year ago and replaced it with a Garrard 301 that I got on eBay. It betters my old turntable in every way, and it is 40 years old.

The most famous idler-wheel drive turntables (none is made currently - tooling is prohibitively expensive - but Loricraft refurbishes the 301 and 401 into a "501", but Teres is planning one maybe) are:

Garrard 301/401 and now Garrard/Loricraft 501
Thorens 124
Lenco L75/L78
Russco - don't know the model #s
EMT - don't know the model #s - these are huge!
Dual - don't know the model #s

Some of these manufacturers moved on to belt drive and direct drive turntables, so be sure you know what you're getting. As always with older equipment, expect to pay money to have it refurbished/tuned up or even rebuilt, by someone who knows what they're doing.

Many of these come with the platter/drive unit only - you build a plinth (I had a carpenter make mine out of baltic birch ply) and add tonearm(s) and cartridge(s).

Patrick