GARRARD 301

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THE SCHICK PLINTH   

Garrard 301 / Garrard 401 / Custom

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Plinth Technical Summary

The plinth material comes from the industrial tooling industry, and has the following characteristics : 

• It has the appearance of a stone or of fine suit fabric

• The material is a high-density polymer

• This material has almost ideal damping characteristics. It dampens but is not "dead"

• High and low frequencies can be absorbed very quickly in the material

• Unlike hard materials there will be no vibration energy stored

• It is heavy, but not too heavy. Heavier than wood, but lighter than slate or stone. Heavy material tends to store the vibration energy longer but often these do not absorb it

• Due to the high mass of such a material it will resonate later, resulting in a smeared sound 

• Materials which absorb only low or high vibrations, result in an unbalanced sound

• The material is also extremely dimensionally stable

• It barely moves at temperature differences that exist in living rooms – it practically does not move at all – unlike wood 

• These positive characteristics however are reflected in a high material price ...

• ... it is about seven times more expensive than mahogany !

• However, the related CNC process allows for an affordable production cost

• The machining also allows tailored cutouts for bearing and motor

• The design allows clumsy levers and and adjustment bars to be omitted

• The plinth fits the record player like a glove

Thus, I achieved greater stability than regular large area cutout plinths from any other material

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With a Garrard 301/401, a Thorens TD124 or a Technics SP10 you can easily surpass the performance of most turntables costing multiples more.