Creme 301 or grey 301? Which is the best?

[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

[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 !

[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

[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


@ 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