Vintage Garrard AT6 record player. Restored with MM cartridge.
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- Very early Garrard AT6 with dual pole motor. Fully restored and installed with a MM cartridge with old pioneer amp and AKAI speakers with restored crossovers.
The original ceramic cartridge, Sonotone 9ta is the best ceramic cartridge ever made. It beats the sound of most cheaper moving magnet cartridges. It came in a low compliance that tracked up to 5 grams, and a high compliance that tracked at 2 grams. I had the high compliance one in my Garrard SP25 MKII
I found matching the cartridge to the amps input is very important to sound quality. Tried a few Sonotone's with a new needle that came with the AT6's with a Grundig Valve amp. Not great sound but i suspect its more do do with worn out cartridges or old amps.. The MM sounds incredible with coupled with the amp i am using. Just a lucky match.
Yes they are coming back
The 'stereo direction finder' knob is completely new to me, and I've seen various AT6's. Presumably it's a balance control built directly into the turntable.
@@jonvincentmusic yes. It’s an early balance control. Have disabled it.
These decks are impeccable.
Forget most of the common japanese decks from the mid 70's onwards, these garrards are the way to enjoy vinyl records.
Most people are foolishly put off with the idler drives, but providing the idler is in good shape and the tone arm bearings are
freshly oiled, you'll be very shocked by its timing accuracy.
I have tinkered with these what were an economic priced bracket garrards for many years due to fixing up all in one old record players from the 1960's that they were commonly fitted to.
I recently dug out a 1967 SP MK2 with heavey cast platter and with the more robust tone arm and fitted a decent old stock hitachi branded audiotechnica VM cartridge and fitted new old stock stylus, using the half inch cast metal garrard cartridge hight bracket adaptor so that the arm is dead level with the back bearing when playing a record. I also used the little plasic cartridge tilt wedge that garrard provided with their next 2 models up, the mk3 and 4.
All cleand and oiled in the correct places soldered some good audio leads to tag terminal board and proceeded to connect to one of my yamaha amps with mordaunt short speakers.
Absolutely different to anything else id been using, not only with sound level, but the timing of these decks is sublime.
I really cannot get over how a deck using such a simple idler can out do most of the direct driven tables ive used.
Maybe the heavy platter is key in keeping up the stablity, and ofcourse garrards ingenius high precision motors.
I have a lot of decks in my collection up to a yamaha px1 linear tracking.
After all these years of tinkering with these simple garrards, i never ever thought i'd get these results from this mk2.
I have a much later 86sb mk2 belt driven, but i dont like the weedy S shaped tonearm that garrard started using so im
pretty certain i can do a very careful straight swap over from a mk 3 with the bits fitted from the mk 3 as garrard did use
the same tonearm from the mk4 onto the model SB125 (single belt drive) tables from around 1976.
I think i still have a sb125 buried somewhere. I do know i have a good few AT60's fitted in consoles/radiograms!
Beautiful AT6, certianly looks fantastic, has an early thorens look about it in the creamy brown paintwork. V nice indeed!
This is a great record player
I too have this record player which a friend gave me but she needs a complete overhaul. Beautiful machine though 😊
Excellent, I think my Dad had one of these many years ago, He had a chassis version built into a home made cabinet that included a Tripletone 8+8 stereo valve amplifier, driving to IB enclosures: Goodmans Axiom 80 in one and Wharfedale Super 8 RS/DD .There was also in parallel with one of the enclosures, an eagle Horn tweeter with it's own crossover unit mounted in the back. He later took the wide cabinet,(with Axiom 80) and turned this side ways, and made another and constructed two twin Acoustic transmission Lines with KEF B139B/B110A/Peerless KO 10 DT tweeters and coles 4001 G Super tweeters/Cambridge Audio R50 xovers. the Tripletone Amp and tuner , together with the Garrard were unfortunately stolen along with some other items whilst our furniture was in storage ! So with insurance, he bought a Goodmans Module 80 and Pioneer PL12-D .The speakers are excellent. I am really impressed with your system there, well done !
Sounds like a great system. I find matching all the components is key to great sound.
That's very interesting. I love the old ideas and the classic audio technology stories.
Some of these componants are all now highly sought after gems.
Goodmans module 80 and 90 series receivers 40watts & 45watts per ch.
The british audio industry was something very special in the halcyon days.
From the looks of the goodmans module range receivers, they looked very much like the armstrong 600 series.
Maybe not externally, but certainly on the inside!
Most early british audio gear is now regarded as super collectors items, made very robust to last, just like these garrards!
Sounds wonderful from here
Is your pioneer the sa 650 I have when it's a good amplifier
@@DavidBerquist334 can’t remember, this was a while ago
Hey I have a question, is the Audio Technica cartridge you're using an AT3600 body? I have a Garrard AT6 I've been trying to get to work with an AT3600 cart that keeps skipping intermittently during records (yet the stylus and records are known to be in good condition), but I understand this may be too light of a cartridge for the AT6 to handle. Assuming you're using the same cart, do you have any tips on how you got yours to play nice with this type of cartridge?
Cant remember, but i have tried many MM cartridges and they work fine. I set the weight to 2.5-2.7G. Make sure the rest of the ARM is free to move and the springs have the sponge dampers. It is very sensitive to shaking the TT.
@@phantomrose1999 ah ok, thanks! I will look into that. Now that you mention the sponge dampers, I do realize that mine is indeed missing them so that may contribute to the issue. The ARM and rest of the TT mech seems to be moving actually quite smoothly without any gumminess or interference, although the TT does nonetheless need to be relubricated. Glad to hear you've had good luck with MM carts, hopefully the dampers and a relube will be all it takes to get mine to track smoothly. Thanks for the tips!
@@TMNT39 you need to use the metal cartridge holder as well.
@@phantomrose1999 Yes, mine had that adapter already luckily. Thanks!
@@phantomrose1999 On Amazon you can buy stick on feet that kills vibration that might help with the shaking
Does it run at the proper speed as some record players run a bit faster I know mine runs a semitone faster
The motor speed is locked to the AC mains phase, so it cant vary as long as the bearings are free. All of these i have restored required the idler wheel to be put in a drill and held against a table or put in in a vice and spun. Then i put some sandpaper on a block and hold it against the spinning idler. This will remove a layer of the rubber and make it grip again. Without doing this, it will slip and slow down when engaging the auto changer part as well as being a little slow. Also clear lightly sand and clear the motors driver pulley and the inside of the platter. Having said all that i have not measured the speed, given i play old scratched records anyway..
...I believe +/- 3% was the Garrard guide-line.
Where can I get one like this.
They were used in Stereogram or radiogram units in the 60’s. Many Kriesler units had the Garrard AT6 turntable in them
there is one like that on ebay now. i may get it after all
They are great old TT’s. Just put the idler in a drill and hold it against sandpaper to remove a layer then they play fine. May also need to clean and grease the mechanism as old grease becomes hard.
This is a great record player