A new addition!!!

[audio_dude]

yay, i got my filthy hands fiddiling with an old Garrard Zero 100SB, and its works!!!
hooked up to my Sansui, its got this golden silky smooth, warm, almost tube-like sound, oh so sweet to the ears...

wanna guess what the first piece of vinyl that touched this thing was? a small 45 i had on my desk, in the back... Little Willy, by The Sweet!

oh ya, great sounnddd, now, for tonight i've got "Dark Side of the Moon", "Abbey Road" and some Tchaikovsky "Symphony No.4"

[jrhymeammo]

Whatta Hell? This came outta nowhere. What happened to your new receiver you wanted? Did you come across a deal you couldnt refuse? Post some pics for us if you can. Congrats and happy listening.

[Bernd]

Congrats. Audio_Dude,

And may I say a very fine choice of vinyl for the first spin.

Enjoy.

Peace

Bernd

[emaidel]

I won't say, "The Zero 100 stinks, no matter which flavor," but I am no fan of the unit. I purchased one myself and liked it for a while, but got plenty tired of the fact that the slightest warp (when using a low-mass cartridge, like the original ADC XLM) caused the tonearm to fly off the record and then "crash-land" back down. The excessively massive tonearm was the cause of this problem.

Additionally, Garrard was notorious for poor human engineering, and all the vertical tabs (attractive though they were) were secured to the platform in such a manner that it was all but impossible not to have the tonearm skip when either using the cueing or on/off functions.

I did sell many, many Zero 100's, as I was working for Lafayette Radio at the time it was on the market, and Lafayette paid us three times as much money to sell a Zero 100 than its far superior competitor, the Dual 1229. Purchasing a 1229Q, and using the aforementioned ADC XLM was all the proof I needed in hearing the superiority of the Dual unit.

So, now that I've thorougly trashed your new possession, may I suggest that you check out eBay for listings for 1229's. They're usually there in abundance, and at good prices. You have no idea how much better your records will sound on it, as opposed to the Garrard Zero 100.

[basite]

congrats, even if things aren't built well (as the previous post says) things can still be tweaked, i checked some things, that might be interesting for you, if you want to tweak your garrard, I did some tweakings myself on my luxman pd-282, and i must say, they do help alot.
http://www.tnt-audio.com/clinica/garrard2e.html

happy listening,

Greetings,
Basite,

and oh yeah, post some pics, if you can.

[emaidel]

The manufacturing quality of the Zero 100 was fine. It was the overall design that was the problem, and investing money to bring it "up to spec," or anything similar is money spent unwisely, IMO.

The idea of an "articulated" tonearm, that was tangent to the groove all across the record was downright revolutionary in its time. Unfortunately, all the additional metal that it took to accomplish this resulted in unacceptably high mass. The tonearm of the Zero 100 is the best illustration I can think of to prove the benefits of the brush assembly on either Pickering or Stanton cartridges. With the brush in place (and the necessary changes in tonearm weight to accomodate the brush), warped records played just fine. Without the brush, and this would hold true for virtually any other cartridge on the market, warped records presented a major obstacle for the Zero 100.

I took a quick look on eBay and found about 4 Dual 1229's and 2 1229Q's (the only difference in the "Q" model, other than cosmetics, is in the capacitance of the cables, which are better replaced anyway on either unit). All are selling for less than the suggested improvments for Zero 100's. Guess where I'd recommend one spend the money?

[audio_dude]

We've got a technics on my dads stereo (model: SL-D202)

theres also a Technics SL-220 in the basement, but its got a broken belt, we ordered a new one once, but it never came!

oh well, i've also got a dual coming to me (model # escapes me), but i'd have to buy a new cartridge for it, or buy the ortofon thats on it off my step-dad

[Jim Clark]

Glad you found something you really like and are excited about. I'm sure none of my tt's are the last word in anything - except their appeal to me. Plus, they all play records or more correctly stated, they will all play records.

Pic woulda been nice though!

jc

[audio_dude]

i've got my camera, i'll try to get some pics up for tommorow!!