Generation Two Turntable with True Tangent Tracking
Since the first flat disc record was made, just about many year ago, audio engineers have been searching for a way to eliminate tracking error.
The master record is cut with a stylus that maintains a constant 90° tangent to the groove it is inscribing. Problem: play it back the same way . Anything else produces tracking error (maybe a little, maybe a fair amount), and that means distortion. In many years of search, turntable manufacturers have proposed an array of solutions. Some have been inventive, even ingenious; other have verged on the ridiculous. None until guide recently have been successful. Now there are there; all as different from any other turntable as the flat disc is from Edison's cylinder. Two of them solve the problem by a radical departure from traditional design; they move the entire tonearm across the record - pivot, counterweight and all.
Ingenious, Complex. And expensive.
Garrard found another way. Our half-century of turntable engineering culminated in a solution that retains the pivoted tonearm yet keeps the stylus in an absolutely true 90° tangent to the groove at every point from the record's outer rim right to the label.
Further, we did this with a computer-designed tonearm made of the ultimate in lightweight, rigid metals; magnesium. It has the lowest mass (14 grams) - and the lowest inertial drag - of any multiple-play turntable. And it is automatic. Fully automatic. Silky-smooth, silently automatic, and therefore gentler and safer than the steadiest hand, whether you use it as a single play or a multiple play turntable.
Garrard's solution - the GT55 - delivers other advantages, as well. Some small, some quite large, depending on what's important to you.
And one overriding advantage. The others sell for prices up to $700. the GT55 is under $250. which makes True Tracking not a costly privilege but an available benefit. To everybody.
True Tangent Tonearm
The computer designed True Tangent Tonearm keeps the stylus at a constant 90° tangent to the record groove, by means of an articulated head. The angle between the head (holding cartridge and stylus) and the shaft of the tonearm changes with each groove. Thus, while the tonearm swings in an are over the record, the stylus is kept at a constant, true tangent. Tracking error is eliminated, with its consequent problems of record wear and harmonic distortion.
Tonearm
Made of modern, low-mass magnesium, the GT55'stonearm weight an astonishing 14 grams. It rides on jewel vertical pivots and horizontal ball bearings. Inertial drag and friction are reduced to absolute minimum levels.
Anti-skating protection on the GT55 is provided by a unique, patented system. Completely non-mechanical, it operates magnetically, and varies in proportion to the actual skating force across the surface of the disc. It is calibrated for elliptical and CD4 styli.
Cueing rate is variable, and the cueing operation is damped in both directions by the main cam of the turntable
The GT55 is the only belt-drive multiple play turntable with a DC servo motor. Both the motor and the belt-driven automatic mechanism are completely new. The speed of the motor is continuously governed and regulated by an electronic servo system. The automatic mechanism is smooth and silent in both single and multiple play. It is also completely disengaged from the tone arm when the record is playing.
Speed control is variable ±3%, and is electronically governed by the servo which controls the motor. Read-out monitored by an illuminated stroboscope.
The platter is four pounds, die-cast and dynamically balanced for smooth, precise rotation. It is driven by a flexible belt, which insulates it from any possible motor vibration.
The precision controls are conveniently grouped , and include selectors for single or multiple play, as well as a repeat-play option for use in either mode.
Specifications
Speeds: 3-⅓ and 45 rpm
Number of Records: 6
Wow and Flutter: 0,05%
Rumble: -66 dB (DIN B)
Motor: DC servo
Tonearm: Magnesium, low mass
Dimensions: 389 x 358 mm (15-5/16" x 14-1/8")