SMD Acoustics Upgraded Platter for Garrard 401

The SMD Acoustics platter is CNC machined from solid aluminium round bar to very tight tolerances better than two thousandths of an inch. The finished platter is supplied in a number of finishes including machined, polished, hammertone and satin black. Special colours on request.

Solid aluminium is virtually free of any defects and thus perfect for a turntable platter. For reasons of cost (solid aluminium is very expensive and creates a lot of waste during machining) the original platter was cast aluminium and the casting process inevitably suffered from porosity and flaws within the casting these coupled with casting tolerances that can not easily produce a consistent thickness means the platter was not in balance which required the drilling of holes in the platter to try and balance it.

The SMD Acoustics platter is as perfectly balanced as can be achieved with modern state of the art machinery and selection of the best material. This avoids the excessive vibration caused by a badly balanced rotating platter. Such a platter can cause unacceptable levels of noise and detrimental effects on sound quality.

The extra diameter is 7mm over that of a standard platter and the upgraded platter has 420 grams of extra mass, this greatly improves the platters inertia and results in added bass delivery, stability of imaging etc. basically it has so much energy in rotation that it takes a lot to stop it spinning. The theory has been well employed over several years and oversize platters have been used by the likes of Shindo for his 301.

We can also supply uprated bearings from SMD Acoustics in stainless steel or brass (oil not grease). A solid brass platter is also available but this must be used with an uprated bearing due to its high mass.

The platter looks perfect on the 401 and the extra 7mm is visually unnoticeable unlike some oversize platters which look odd.

Note: If you have a raised strobe 401 please advise us as we have to provided a 297mm diameter platter as the raised strobe will interfere with the large diameter platter.

Shipping within ex stock to 21 working days dependant on finish selected.

Reviews

Malcolm Littler Customer Review