Both the Thorens TD124 and the Garrard 301 were heavily modified with the assistance of Greg Metz of STS out of the Nashville area. Both plinths were built by Russ Collinson of Layers of Beauty in the UK from the same sheet of very thick Cocobolo. Both feature Reed 3P arms Current cartridges installed (and set up by Brian Walsh of TTsetup out of Chicago) are a VdH Crimson XGW and a Lyra Etna Lamda. Both turntables have outboard power supplies to stabilize voltage to the induction motors and have Phoenix Engineering Road Runner tachs installed. Digital rig is an Aurender W20 via a custom S/PDIF made by Analysis Plus from Silver Apex wire to a SW1X DAC III Balanced. Phono pre is the Manley Steelhead. The preamp is an ARC Ref 6 and I have replaced the ARC Ref 150SE with a Ref 80S hooked up with Cardas Clear Beyond and I use Cardas Clear and sometimes Auditorium 23 speaker cable to my Devore O/93's which I take in and out with a pair of Spendor D7.2's. I am the original owner of everything but the Thorens (originally purchased by my dad in 1959) and the Garrard which Mr. Metz reports to be virtually NOS when he found it. Symposium racks. Multiple dedicated lines. Isotek power conditioning. Stillpoints under each plinth. Steve Dobbins supplied both cartridges and that is his proprietary platter on the Garrard. Russ Collinson made a video of the making of my plinth because he had to adopt a new method for the veneering of my plinths due to the thickness (too thick for vacuum sealing) here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSM5UF2YeFc
@fsonicsmith congrats on a beautiful system. It seems you took great care in choosing your components. The wood and finish on your 301 plinth is absolutely gorgeous! Cheers, Anthony
The veneer on the Garrard is 1.8mm (three times thicker than most) Cocobolo. When the sheet came in to Russ Collinson, he told me had never seen such a nice sheet of Cocobolo and he suggested a thicker than normal application which would by necessity involve going old-school with clamps and glue rather than the more common vacuum bag process. I recently inquired about a new plinth for my Thorens and Russ mentioned he still had enough of that same sheet to do a second plinth. This one will have the same overall dimensions but will have a floating top on sorbothane balls to accommodate the principles that Thorens' designers had in mind when the drive system was manufactured.
Sorry-all this time and I did not notice the questions.
Yes, the plinth for my 301 is cocobolo.
There is a great story behind it.
Russ Collinson was having a hard time sourcing cocobolo (even worse now).
He came upon a striking piece that was much thicker than he was used to.
He decided not to plane it down and instead install it using a new technique-manual clamps rather than vacuum sealing.
He has a video on his website documenting the build of MY plinth.
Perhaps my proudest moment came when Brian Walsh of TTsetup.com, a man who has seen his share of exotic turntables, called my Garrard "museum quality".
Wow! What a beautiful room and wonderful equipment. I can imagine it sounds wonderful. Pity if you ditch the great looking rug. If you find the right ratio of rug vs floor, it should be easy to fold during serious listening sessions.
