Creme 301 or grey 301? Which is the best?

301, 401, plinths and assorted idler stuff
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6B4G
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Location: near Frankfurt / Main - Germany

#1 Creme 301 or grey 301? Which is the best?

Post by 6B4G »

Hi there,

i have a white garrard 301 with Oil bearing and black lettering und silver plates. This turntabel is the best i ever had. He runs almost silently and is technically almost perfect.
A friend of mine has a Schedule 1 turntable: a gray/silver hammerite paint and came with black legends with silver text. This turntabel has a grease bearing. It is in very good condition.
It might be, that he will sell this to me. I don`t know the price, but i think, it will be around 1200 Euro. My question to you is: Do these players sound different? What puts out this early 301? Absolutely, this is is a rare 301, but is worthwhile the purchase? I don`t know. What do you think?

regards Elmar
Garrard 301, Hoffmann`s Tube Line Stage and Phono, DIY 300B Amps, Audio Note "S2" , DIY Audio Note "E" and DIY cable.
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andrew Ivimey
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#2

Post by andrew Ivimey »

Ah! my 301 is a grease bearing but looks like a more modern one. It too is a very lovely sounding (and looking deck). So there are more than two models of 301 !
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david C
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#3

Post by david C »

I think the only reason for the grey ones being valuable is the popularity they had/have in Japan,

there's no difference between the grey and the cream grease bearing ones as far as I can see,

as to whether the grease bearing is better than the oil bearing, there is lots of evidence that the grease one is a better bearing but if it makes a difference to the sound I don't know
David

Wasps are the Katie Price of the Animal Kingdom - utterly pointless and bloody irritating!
6B4G
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Posts: 24
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Location: near Frankfurt / Main - Germany

#4

Post by 6B4G »

@ Andrew,

there are 6 different 301 models:

1, Gray paint/grease bearing/black plates
2, Cream paint/grease bearing/black plates
3, Cream paint/grease bearing/silver plates
4, Cream paint/oil bearing/silver plates
5, White paint/oil bearing/silver plates
6, White paint/oil bearing/black plates

here you can see: http://www.slatedeck.com/turntables/which%20301.html
:D

@ David,

Thank you for your opinion, I think so too. However, the grey 301 looks really good. With the right grease in its bearing it should run very good.

regards Elmar
Garrard 301, Hoffmann`s Tube Line Stage and Phono, DIY 300B Amps, Audio Note "S2" , DIY Audio Note "E" and DIY cable.
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