Acquired: Garrard AT6 Idler Drive TT

[Record Player]

I had acquired a Garrard AT6 Changer Idler Drive Turntable about a few months ago. From then I was eagerly waiting to get it setup and write a review.

This is a model from the year 1962-1966 made in England. This is a new/old boxed piece and thats how I received it. Courtesy FM Shafic who extended his support in me acquiring this. This materialized a couple of weeks before I acquired the Technics SL-1200mk2. My intensions for this Garrard were primarily to play me collection of 78s.

These Garrards come without plinths; hence this was my first DIY project for a plinth. This came with a headshell and a Sonotone 8T Cartridge specifically for 78s. Needed a set on RCA interconnects and a ground wire.
I started with the planning for a plinth and decided to make a basic box type plinth with marine plywood. Spoke with Setvieboy on multiple occasions and a lot valuable inputs provided. Thanks Stevie. It took me about a month to get the Plinth completed as my carpenter delayed the project by a couple of weeks. The Plinth: Plywood, Veneered and then Polished. I was confused with the soldering bit and Reubens reference chart he shared was of great help. Once, soldered worked perfectly. Mounted the turntable on the plinth and I am due to add squash balls to the plinth base for isolation. BTW, I got the plinth dimensions a bit wrong and if you notice, the height is beyond maybe an inch or so but then again, gives more breathing space to the motor

Gave it a first attempt to play this Garrard last night. When I powered it up, I noticed that this idler hardly makes any motor noise. Tried balancing the tonerarm but I am not sure if I achieved the right results. I need some advice on rightly setting up the tonearm and balance on this Garrard as its not as simple as the Technics TTs.

I will get to the listening impressions right after all the settings are rightly in place.

Looking forward to your advice and suggestions. Please also suggest a decent Cartride upgrade and headshell.

Photos below:

 

[Saket]

Great going Record Player! Quite a bit of acquisitions in the last few months. Looks like you are on a spree of collecting your handle- 'Record Players'!

Congrats. Looks like a very clean set.

 

[reubensm]

Adjusting the counter weight is very easy, all you need to do is loosen the screw, adjust the pointer and tighten the screw again

 

[reubensm]

can you share some light on the make up of the plinth? is it a hollow cabinet, filled or layered?

 

[Record Player]

Adjusting the counter weight is very easy, all you need to do is loosen the screw, adjust the pointer and tighten the screw again

I did that. What I did first is balance the tonearms weigh for it to float hirizontally correct and after that set the VTF to 4g for the Sonotone Cart and when queued it to play, it came crashing down.

 

[Record Player]

can you share some light on the make up of the plinth? is it a hollow cabinet, filled or layered?

Sure Reuben. As we had discussed earlier, nothing very technical and kept the plinth very basic. Just a box type hollow plinth, just the build is solid and heavy. All sides covered. A couple of slots behind for plugs and connectors.

 

[shafic]

Congratulations:clapping:
This baby is looking very pretty n cute.The plinth looks good, fill the border gap with rubber ( belt)packing of different colour ( white) will add more beauty.Happy listening!!.hyeah:

 

[Record Player]

Great going Record Player! Quite a bit of acquisitions in the last few months. Looks like you are on a spree of collecting your handle- 'Record Players'!

Congrats. Looks like a very clean set.

Hey Saket - Thanks. Well yes, a couple of acquisitions over the last few months. Honestly, the 1200 was a surprise and it just happened and it was not planned. I had planned this Garrard only for me 78s.

I don't intend to have large collections of TTs. I think I've achieved my primary dream TT (1200) as I simply enjoy the music it produces. I am content now, thanks to a lot of FMs and their advice especially Reuben who really gives you a realistic perspective on TTs. Hope the Garrard gives me that result that I am looking for on the 78s. Until then, no more acquisitions and investments, unless and unless anything comes knocking on my door again . Even from Amps to Speakers to Cables to Racks, I am fortunate to have some legends and there will be no further/immediate upgrades for some time. Going to focus on my Record and CD collection in a phased manner.

Cheers....BTW howz your Technics singing after its facelift?

 

[Record Player]

Congratulations:clapping:
This baby is looking very pretty n cute.The plinth looks good, fill the border gap with rubber ( belt)packing of different colour ( white) will add more beauty.Happy listening!!.hyeah:

Thanks and that is indeed a good suggestion as that will also help with dust not getting through.

 

[reubensm]

I did that. What I did first is balance the tonearms weigh for it to float hirizontally correct and after that set the VTF to 4g for the Sonotone Cart and when queued it to play, it came crashing down.

Came crashing down?? Sense that your arm lift table's dampening lube has dried up. Did you check this? Not sure if this model has the gentle drop but the SP25 had the gentle drop.

 

[Record Player]

Came crashing down?? Sense that your arm lift table's dampening lube has dried up. Did you check this? Not sure if this model has the gentle drop but the SP25 had the gentle drop.

Good question, but I dont know about lube drying up need to check. Ive seen videos of the AT6 on youtube and it has a soft and gentle drop. Is the tonearm and Weight and VTF setting similar on the SP25?

Let me give this another attempt tonight and see if I can get it right. Once I get it right I intentd to use the manual feature more often.

 

[peace_sells]

Congratulations record player! :clapping: You know what..When i was looking for my first turntable, I'd almost bought the AT6. I came across this on ebay (uk) in very good condition. Starting bid was 20 pounds. I placed a bid. In the end I lost it. It was finally sold for around 60-70 pounds. I dint want to bid for more than 50 as the shipping rate was quite high

Anyway happy listening!

 

[reubensm]

Good question, but I dont know about lube drying up need to check. Ive seen videos of the AT6 on youtube and it has a soft and gentle drop. Is the tonearm and Weight and VTF setting similar on the SP25?

Let me give this another attempt tonight and see if I can get it right. Once I get it right I intentd to use the manual feature more often.

The AT6 and SP25 MK1 was essentially the same deck. Actually if one examined the SP25 MK1 carefully, one could notice mounts for the auto-changer either covered or left un-used. The SP25 MK1 (infact, the entire SP series) were semi-automatics and had auto return. The SP25 MK1 was one hell of a war horse.

 

[Saket]

Hey Saket - Thanks. Well yes, a couple of acquisitions over the last few months. Honestly, the 1200 was a surprise and it just happened and it was not planned. I had planned this Garrard only for me 78s.

I don't intend to have large collections of TTs. I think I've achieved my primary dream TT (1200) as I simply enjoy the music it produces. I am content now, thanks to a lot of FMs and their advice especially Reuben who really gives you a realistic perspective on TTs. Hope the Garrard gives me that result that I am looking for on the 78s. Until then, no more acquisitions and investments, unless and unless anything comes knocking on my door again . Even from Amps to Speakers to Cables to Racks, I am fortunate to have some legends and there will be no further/immediate upgrades for some time. Going to focus on my Record and CD collection in a phased manner.

Cheers....BTW howz your Technics singing after its facelift?

Sure, with gears like these, you don't need upgrades in near future. This feeling may be described as attaining Nirvana for an audiophile

Well, my Technics is doing pretty well. I just changed the setting on my amp to flat so as to produce fatigue free music which I am enjoying these days.

Regards,
Saket

 

[AmitKumar]

Hey Record Player,

Congratulations for your new acquisition.

Hope you get the neccessary adjustments done very soon and start enjoying your collection of 78s rpm.

Regards

 

[Record Player]

The AT6 and SP25 MK1 was essentially the same deck. Actually if one examined the SP25 MK1 carefully, one could notice mounts for the auto-changer either covered or left un-used. The SP25 MK1 (infact, the entire SP series) were semi-automatics and had auto return. The SP25 MK1 was one hell of a war horse.

Last week I did balance the tone arm and set the VTF accordingly. Same as what I did last time, but still noticed the drop being hard on the record. So dint want to take any changes and was using the manual method until I figure this out. Any suggestions? The youtube videos show a soft and gentle drop.

BTW, when I played a VG+ 78rpm, I noticed a lof of hiss and pops when playing. I infact cleaned the record throughly with water and dried it completely and it was shining before play. I wonder! Is this how 78s are meant to sound? I need to try playing a few more 78s and see how they perform.

What I did next was try play a 45rpm EP on this Garrad and it sounded wonderful. And I used the same Sonotone 8T 78rpm cart to play the EP. Hope this is okay?

Gurus/Experts - Looking forward to your views and suggestions.

Please can you also suggest a decent cart and headshell to play 33s and 45s?

 

[Record Player]

Gents - The Garrad AT6 was shelved for a while because of the 1200s being the culprits .

I plan to bring this back on me Rack as I have a large collection of 78s that I have still not heard even once. Please can you suggest an appropriate phonostage for a ceramic cart to give best output and results?

Looking forward to your suggestions.

 

[reubensm]

Gents - The Garrad AT6 was shelved for a while because of the 1200s being the culprits .

I plan to bring this back on me Rack as I have a large collection of 78s that I have still not heard even once. Please can you suggest an appropriate phonostage for a ceramic cart to give best output and results?

Looking forward to your suggestions.

This is a difficult one. There is not many, if no, options out there when it comes to ceramic carts these days. You can take the following approaches:

1) find yourself a vintage amplifier which has a ceramic input, most vintage valve amplifiers in the pre-1950s era had ceramic inputs. I've also seen ceramic inputs on some old cosmic and HMV amps.

2) build yourself a valve amplifier. The famous Mullard 3-3 amp is a legend. I have heard a DIY version of this amp play with a ceramic cart and it sounded very good. Mullard 3-3. Three Watt Amplifier

3) build yourself a more complex FET-based ceramic phonostage like this one from Decca:

4) or you can build a simple one like this: http://www.hifivision.com/phono-turntables/48499-ceramic-phonostage-build.html

 

[reubensm]

this is also a good addition for listening to older records but again, will take some building:

this scratch and rumble filter can be inserted between your ceramic phonostage and amp.

 

[reubensm]

Sorry, just saw this post, check out my post and you'll get a few answers about 78 rpm hiss/pops/ticks and sound quality: http://www.hifivision.com/phono-turntables/4425-magnetic-cartridge-78-rpm-records.html#post499268

It would be interesting to note that most 78s available in the Indian market would have been played on needled gramophones. Once the heavy sound box needle left is mark even after a single run, you're always going to hear background noise. They literally excavated the grooves they played

Not sure what kind of cart or stylus you are referring to. From your posts, I assume you have a sonotone stereo ceramic cart with a flip stylus (the AT6 is from the early 1960s, when stereo was around). If yes, you can play EPs or any microgroove records by flipping the stylus to the microgroove one. If this is a fixed 78rpm type, then don't play any microgroove records using it.

The hard drop is due to dried up lubrication. Even my older RC210 changer has a gentle drop.

Last week I did balance the tone arm and set the VTF accordingly. Same as what I did last time, but still noticed the drop being hard on the record. So dint want to take any changes and was using the manual method until I figure this out. Any suggestions? The youtube videos show a soft and gentle drop.

BTW, when I played a VG+ 78rpm, I noticed a lof of hiss and pops when playing. I infact cleaned the record throughly with water and dried it completely and it was shining before play. I wonder! Is this how 78s are meant to sound? I need to try playing a few more 78s and see how they perform.

What I did next was try play a 45rpm EP on this Garrad and it sounded wonderful. And I used the same Sonotone 8T 78rpm cart to play the EP. Hope this is okay?

Gurus/Experts - Looking forward to your views and suggestions.

Please can you also suggest a decent cart and headshell to play 33s and 45s?