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Garrard 301 review: Auditorium 23 plinth and SME 3012 vs Full Shindo super rig

Posted by t-haw (A) on October 25, 2006 at 16:01:17

Garrard 301 review: Auditorium 23 plinth and SME 3012 vs Full Shindo super rig

I recently just got an Auditorium A 23 plinth for my Garrard 301 from Matt Rotunda at Pitch perfect audio. Matt is a great guy and endured my need to compare my table to the full Shindo rig. When I picked up my plinth Matt had both tables set up and I had the privilege of listening to both my table: Garrard grease bearing 301, SME 3012R tone arm and DL 103 Cartridge versus the full blown Shindo 301. Both tables were going through the same Shindo pre amp, Giscours I believe, and then into a Cortese F2a amp and out the other end through Gibbon Super 8 speakers.

First let me say that if you have never heard a full Shindo rig then all I can say is get thee to a dealer if you can. What a way to spend an afternoon. It is really pretty amazing (especially through the field coil speakers but that is another story) There are more hyper detailed systems. There are systems with bigger sound stages. There are systems with better bass (or at least bigger base). However, nothing, no system I have ever heard anywhere emotes the same visceral feeling of listening to live music. The instruments and voices sound like they do in real life. The way you hear the instruments interact in a live space is the way the music comes out of the Shindo system. I suspect it has something to do with the timing of the notes meaning leading edge and decay and the PRAT of the overall system. In other words it feels like music because the timing is right and the relationship between the notes is right and the amount of detail is appropriate to the recording. All the detail is presented if you care to listen but you don’t hear detail for detail sake (a sort of hyper realism I have heard in some systems where each detail is squeezed out but the whole sounds wrong. I think Clearaudio turntables tend to suffer from this) If you are a techno head or really into heavy metal this might not be the system for you but if you like Jazz, vocals, small ensembles and especially classic rock, I have never heard its equal.

First the Shindo 301.. the term that best describes the Shindo is balance… everything is in perfect balance, not a hair out of place. You can crank up the music LOUD and it is never fatiguing. To me it is pretty close to audio perfection: Read Jeff Day’s encounter with the Shindo Gear here. He pretty much nails it!

http://sixmoons.com/audioreviews/mlroadtour1/roadtour_2.html

By comparison the Auditorium 23 plinth comes with a custom arm board for your specific tonearm. Mine is an SME 3012R. Keith makes a proprietary metal arm base for this specific 12-incher. A variety of real wood veneers are available. In this case, I chose Palisander Rosewood. It is quite beautiful if a bit antique looking. You can see it here:

http://sixmoons.com/audioreviews/garrard3/garrard_2.html

According to Keith: “This plinth is tuned with a special blend of woods and design construction techniques to bring out the best qualities of the Garrard 301. This plinth was designed by Norbert Gutte of Lignolab/Germany in 1994 and is built by him to this day. Norbert also does all of Auditorium 23's speakers and has worked with Keith for more than 20 years.” The A23 plinth with my setup is not as refined as the Shindo. It has all of the PRAT and drive that the Idlers produce, It has all the detail that the Shindo has. What is does not have is the balance. When the music is put back together there is a slightly tipped up treble and a slightly taughter base (though less organic sounding) and a smaller sound stage. I lowered the VTA on the tone arm making the arm almost flat and I increased the tracking force above 2.5. These two changes brought the treble under control and the music became much more balanced and hence closer to the Shindo. The SME 3012 and DL 103 are very sensitive to VTA. The Shindo is also a sweeter presentation than the A23. The Shindo sound stage is larger and deeper and the presentation is more middle of the hall. For Jazz and vocals there is no contest... for older rock and blues the A23 boogies perhaps a bit more as the presentation is more upfront and the plucked notes from the guitar are more explosive but not as well integrated into the whole musical presentation.. The Shindo Rig is quiet where as with my table I can hear the Idler spinning against the platter from about 3 feet away. I can not hear any rumble through the speakers or headphones and when the music is playing the sound is not noticeable. There is some hiss when the needle is lifted and the volume is all the way up but again it is not noticeable when the music is playing.

Compared to my digital setup which is a Wavelength Brick USB dac driven from an Apple G4 powerbook the Garrard has FAR more drive. I have the same Hound Dog Taylor recording both on LP and on disk. The digital presentation is dead quiet, black background, sweet somewhat romantic presentation, full juicy midrange.. it sounds good, no it sounds really good. However, with the Garrard I am sitting in a club in Chicago drinking bourbon while Magic Slim shows me his missing finger… I mean it is real. In my system it is by far the best music reproduction I have yet heard and since I can’t afford the full boat Shindo 301, probably the best I am likely to hear. Upgrade potential exists with the shindo platter and bearings and tone arm and cartridge upgrades. However, I have to say that for an $800 20 year old arm and a $250 cartridge this combo kicks butt pretty hard.

I have not heard any other plinths other than the A23 and the Shindo but for less than 1/2 the money I think the A23 plinth makes some great music and for about 25% the cost of a full Shindo 301 the A23, SME 3012, DL 103 combo is hard to beat. For what it is worth the A23 / Shindo / Bastin approach to plinth design makes more sense to me than the open design of the Cain and Cain but I have not heard one so I can not comment.

Side note: When Matt popped on an EMT cartridge ($1600 versus the $250 I paid for the DL 103) the sound stage expanded greatly and the table lost none of its drive. Now it was even closer to the Shindo but still had a more up front presentation. With the dennon 301 into my EAR phono stage I did not care for the A23 step up transformer. Into the Shindo pre amp the transformer worked very well. And with the EMT cart it was killer! So the A23 step up transformer effects are system dependant.

In summary I am really, really happy with my Garrard in the A23 plinth. It is not the last word in detail, It is 50 years old and makes a little noise, is it not as balanced and stately as the Shindo but it sure does make music. How much better is the Shindo… well it is better. I think “how much” better is going to depend on the rest of your system and on what kind of music you like to listen to but when you compare the A23 301 to others I can say that it more than holds its own and for a lot less $$$. I have heard the VPI tables and the Clear audio tables and the Regas and a lot of other tables in the $2K to $10K range and nothing else comes close to presenting the music as organically as the Garrard. My kids are more likely to dance to the Garrard and my Wife rarely asks me to turn it down. The 301 is ripe with music. Also Matt Rotunda is a great guy and absolute gentleman, If you ever get a chance to swing by his shop I highly recommend it.
This is just my experience jumping into the 301 frenzy and I must say I am soooo glad I did. I am just one guy and these are just my opinions, YMMV enjoy the tunes!

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