Straydog, I found a Word file which was my post from 15 years ago when I first got my Garrard 401 in the Loricraft plinth. It was on the old defunct forum so I’ll re-post it here as a interesting reference for you, and perhaps others;
Well, last month I finally received from Loricraft a new arm-base and top-plate so I could fit an Aro to the Garrard 401.
The arm-base is a beautifully machined block and complements the Aro very nicely. Also included was a small riser for the arm-rest, machined to match the arm-rest’s circumference perfectly.
The original top-plate was drilled for either an SME or Rega. The positioning for the Aro has to be different, so the old top-plate could not be used. Loricraft have been playing with the materials and mine would be one of the first to be made from ply rather than the earlier mdf. According to Nigel at Loricraft, there isn’t much of a performance difference between the two, but if pushed, he narrowly favours the ply. Reading between the lines, I decided that ply would be the way to go.
And so to the choice of colour… I knew I wanted something that would complement the French walnut, and had in my mind a colour that was used by BMC during the '60s. A sort of light greyish green that I believe is called “Almond” green. This caused some problems in matching and I have to admit, when I first opened the package to reveal the plinth, I was somewhat shocked. Hmmm… Jade?? Kermit green?? Aaargh!!
But I decided to give it a chance and see how it looked when mated with the walnut base. And I have to say, that now after a month or more, I have grown to like it very much. Phew…!
Although the 401 had been serviced not that long ago, I decided to double check the bearing (easy to do on the Garrard) and re-lubricate it all. Everything looked good as new, so no problems there. Garrard controls are very mechanical and somewhat clunky - think Lancaster bomber compared to Eurofighter - and so cleanliness, proper greasing and oiling is essential for smooth(ish) operation. Speed holds very well, although at the centre detent it’s a little fast. This is easily trimmed via the fine speed control. The fabulous strobe platter really makes this simple.
Before refitting the deck to the top plate, I had to sort out the Prefix. There’s plenty of space inside the plinth for this but I had to decide whether to keep it loose and suspended within some speaker foam or to attach it to the plinth or top-plate. In the end I decided on the latter, mainly because this avoids difficulty if you ever have to remove the top-plate. So I found a spot that would not foul the rubber suspension (squash anyone?) and decided to slightly decouple it by fitting some tap washers between the prefix bracket and the top-plate. The space was almost made for the Prefix and allowed a nice loop for the connector leads from the arm-base to the unit itself. The Loricraft plinth has a generously sized hole at the back that allows the Prefix’s SNAIC to exit without any fouling or snagging.
The arm-base is drilled to allow some minor adjustment to ensure correct cartridge alignment. Nigel had recommended that I don’t tighten up the retaining bolts too much, and in the end I settled on just nipping them up so the arm-base was secure.
The plinth is large - much larger than the LP12 - and so fitting it onto the Fraim presented a few issues. The feet on the plinth base were just outside the Fraim glass area. Rather than try and get a larger piece of glass made up, I decide to just relocate the feet closer together within the base. This seems to have worked fine, hasn’t had any detrimental effects as far as I know, and looks rather good too. In fact, the whole deck looks fabulous to my eyes. The Aro in particular seems so at home in a rather post-modern way. Many arms look rather incongruous and out of place on the Garrard – the modern SMEs in particular. However, with the Aro, if you squint it could be a period Decca, but in this case brought right up to date, and with a reputedly rather better performance!
And the result..? Well, anyone who tells you that Garrards are nasty, rumbly, grumbly dinosaurs really needs to hear this. So far I have used both my own Goldring-rebuilt Fidelity Research FR1 MkIII and a borrowed Ortofon SPU Royal N. Both of these have worked fabulously well. If I had to make a choice I would probably go for the SPU. It just seems to complement the package really well. It has a sublime midrange and it seems to work well with the strengths and weaknesses of the Garrard. Across the frequency range, the Garrards strengths are in the bass and midrange, the weakness in the very high treble, which seems just a little grainy with the FR. The SPU seems to cure all that at a stroke. The Garrard gives an incredible sense of security and solidity to the music. Rhythms are totally locked-in, with no sense of wavering. It’s almost like digital here, but without any of the digital drawbacks. Yes, with the SPU especially, it’s a bit of a romantic, but that’s what I love about it. It’s analog through and through. It is the very essence of what draws people to the sound of music played back on vinyl. The only bad news is that I think I’m going to have to spring for another SPU Royal N (they are no longer the grey-market bargain they were 4 or 5 years ago). It was made for this deck and arm.
So, I’m very happy. It has exceeded my expectations, and I haven’t even started experimenting with Loricraft options such as their cork mat (the standard mat was far the best of the others I tried so far), and at much greater cost, their PSU options. Maybe I can persuade somebody at the Naim factory to build me a special Armageddon…
