Since it was originally published in June 2014, our guide to the 8 best vintage turntables has proved to be the most visited article on the whole site. Being a list of vintage turntables, there’s less need to update the list as regularly as others. However, times and tastes change, as does availability on the […]

The Garrard Project 2015 article is now live at Positive Feedback Online here. This has been a terrific project to do, and Ray Clark at Classic Turntable Company, Christopher Thornton at Artisan Fidelity, and Thomas Schick have all been an absolute delight to work with, and the quality of their work speaks for itself -... Read More »

We get all sorts of interesting things in for service .... On the bench today, one Bush Arena 'Music centre' fitted with the iconic Garrard SP25 turntable .... in this case the Mk3 version. Absolutely immaculate condition and easily 40 years old... only issue is the notorious Auto mechanism which seems to have developed a mind of its own. Ok, not the last word in audiophile High Fidelity, but the 25 has earned its place in the Turntable hall of fame ..... I reckon that anybody who was bitten by the audio bug in the 70s and early 80s will have owned an SP25, Pioneer PL12D or a Dual CS505 at some time during their upgrade route to better things....and so, rather than turn this away and dismiss it as awkward to work on (which it is ) and not worth the effort, decided to give it the respect it deserves and break out the Isopropyl and grease and give it a good service. Although the 25 is hellish complicated inside ... (the earlier models were purely manual and weren't saddled with the crazy muliple levers and springs of the auto) they are fairly reliable and generally only fail due to lack of use . which is the case here ... hardened grease and dry runners ... Can't wait to fire it up ( I have the Bush Arena speakers here too :-) ) and revel in a bit of nostalgia

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Plinths by Harana Audio

The show wasn't open yet. The booths weren't finished being built. I was walking alone, and there were no audio people anywhere. But as soon as I saw it, I froze and pulled out my camera. It's not hammertone gray. It's not a grease-bearing. But it was here in front of me.

TERMINÉ | Voir du matériel similaire

everything on the right place now. A Garrard 401 in a proper plinth. New oil in the bearing. I have to change the cartridge and a new phono cable. Now I can hear some motor noise through the loudspeakers. I can hear it in the runout of a record I have to solve that problem....

1966 Advertisement for Garrard Turntables

I modified the wooden base so that it would fit nicely with this NOS (new old stock) dust cover. I also painted the base black & applied an acrylic coating. WIth this smaller base, the dust cover has to be removed when spinning records. Otherwise, the tonearm weight will rub against the dust cover.