My 401 just rebuilt by Ray Clark, the Classic Turntable Company

My 401 was shipped yesterday morning and arrived today via DHL, it came straight to Miami. My SME came via Fedex and went to Memphis first. It seems to me that DHL uses its own planes.

I would like to thank David who kindly offered to help me out if there’s a problem.

Cheers,

Horacio
 

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My 401 was shipped yesterday morning and arrived today via DHL, it came straight to Miami. My SME came via Fedex and went to Memphis first. It seems to me that DHL uses its own planes.

I would like to thank David who kindly offered to help me out if there’s a problem.

Cheers,

Horacio
Don’t forget pictures when it’s all setup!
david
 
At this point of the game the outlook is not promising. Repainting the chassis added an extra layer of lacquer, the plinth needs to be enlarged a few millimeters and repainted again.
 
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I bought a Classic Turntable Company Reference 301 from Ray last year, quite pleased with it. He had a carpenter friend do the plinth (out of Panzerholz, absolutely dead to tap test) for me. As he had done several for Ray everything fit perfectly.

The Classic Turntable improves greatly the performance of the Gerrard 301 in the following ways: first, the chassis of the 301 was pressed from some pot metal and was flexible, held to the plinth with screws through rubber donuts that you tighten finger tight then 1/4 further only. The platter was cast aluminium which rang and was not balanced. The bearing too was loose (by today's standards) and crude.

Ray CNC-machines a new chassis from solid brass. It has hidden bolts which secure it firmly to the plinth from underneath (so don't show). He also CNC-machines a new platter from solid brass. It is absolutely true and balanced, has more mass and spins for a long time on a new bearing (with closer tolerances) that he designed as well. On the Panzerholz plinth my Gerrard 301 weighs over 100 lbs. I made a video of the turntable showing the movement of the Reed 5A tonearm that I use. The Reed is a pivoted arm but mechanically performs as a linear tracker.

 

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