Paul R Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 I found 'The Good Weekend' of 22 June 1991 recently. Some of you will know this is the magazine that comes with The Age on Saturdays. A very sad read, but one that will be of interest of Garrott Bros. aficianados out there in vinyl playback land. Mods, I hope me posting an article from a near 20 year old newspaper is OK. Paul 2098416599_TheAge_Garrott_2021-04-01_111151.pdf 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiofeline Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 It is certainly a tragic story, and is yet another story highlighting the consequences of unsupported mental health problems. I wonder if the brothers knew that the audio community would still be mourning their deaths two decades into the next century. The certainly left a rich legacy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markielinhart Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 I went to visit these gentlemen in Black Rock with my brother who was working in the hifi industry in Melbourne at the time. They were certainly interestingly different. I’ve still got the parabolic stylus I bought from them that day... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregWormald Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 (edited) Thanks for the post. It was more complete and balanced than the sensationalist cr*p I read at the time. A goodly number of years ago I had a couple of cartridges renovated by the brothers. I was so impressed by the work they did that when I was passing by their place at Avalon I decided to drop in and express my thanks. I was duly greeted by the brothers and their wives and invited in. I was shown around the work areas, had what they did demonstrated to me and then they sat me down at their stereo and treated me to some music. During this session there were calls from the USA about their services that were duly dealt with by John. Their wives went back to the kitchen and later I was treated to a complete morning tea. They were the most friendly, welcoming, and genuine people I could have hoped to meet. Their deaths came as a blow. I'm almost glad they decided to go together, as sad as it was, they were amazingly close and connected. Edited May 12, 2021 by GregWormald deleted corrupt emoji 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiofeline Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 1 hour ago, GregWormald said: ...I decided to drop in ...I was duly greeted by the brothers and their wives and invited in. I was shown around the work areas, had what they did demonstrated to me and then they sat me down at their stereo and treated me to some music. ... A nice recollection. Do you recall what equipment they had in their stereo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregWormald Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 19 minutes ago, audiofeline said: A nice recollection. Do you recall what equipment they had in their stereo? No, sorry. I do remember that the speakers were made by them, but as to the rest...? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevoz Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 Great article.....very informative. I now know more about them than I ever did before. They were certainly an intriguing pair. My first cart was almost a Garrott P77 but I went with a Grace F8C. I now have a genuine Garrott P66 but it needs a new stylus......but I do like the Garrott sound signature. Their passing was a huge loss to the audio world. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willco Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, GregWormald said: No, sorry. I do remember that the speakers were made by them, but as to the rest...? Yes I used to go for aVegetarian Dinner on a Sunday to their place in Avalon. Such gentle folk indeed great pity on their Demise. I saw an Lp12 cannot recall the Arm--it may have been a Grace 707 but not sure. The Amp was based on an Ampliwire Integrated made by Matti Otala. My late friend Alistair MacDonald knew the brothers and mentioned to me the speakers were done in corroboration with Dr. Richard Small of Sydney University. Alistair knew both parties -particulary Dick Small whom I met also-- if you want to know about Speaker evolution as we enjoy it today --read up on him and his papers -he was acknowledged as leading world authority on Transducer technology . Willco Edited April 1, 2021 by Willco 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 I remember meeting the brothers and their wives at an Australian audio night at Pirimai Hi Fi in Burwood in 1987. I still remember Brian urging me to look through his stereo microscope at the cartridge he had set up on the microscope plinth - simply magic stuff. Thiele - Small parameters - the work of geniuses, of which Neville Thiele was an Australian. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 12ax7b Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 Thanks for posting the article. I did quite a bit of business with them in the mid 80's. The four of them were very close and great company. I recall spending a day with them in Sydney, followed by an evening of music and fish and ships, and herbal teas. The system at that time included a modified NAD 3020 driving a pair of electrostatics that Brian had built himself. Brians workdesk was under the windows looking out over the river, with the turntable right next to him for cartridge testing. Their craftsmanship was superb - they didn't just replace cantilevers and stylus, they often improved the internal construction of cartridges they felt were poorly made - particulalry Koetsu's - "worst built cartridge in the world". The early stone bodied Koetsu's for example had the generators wedged in with paper and would occasionally fall out... I dont think they have been matched by any cartridge repairers in my view apart from AJ Van Den Hul and Reto Andreoli. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkaramazov Posted April 4, 2021 Share Posted April 4, 2021 Thanks for this share. Very sad, but nice to learn a bit more about the brothers. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian McP Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 Back in the 80's(?) I remember one of the Garrott brothers brought in one of their early versions of their Weinz parabolic stylus to the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) suite then run by RMIT Applied Physics dept. With the SEM's extended depth of field and high magnification (as opposed to an optical microscope) at X 1000 magnification the parabolic profile of the stylus was superbly defined! regards Ian 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wimbo Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 Interesting read. I did an order with John that week on the Monday and everything seemed fine. Was a bit of a shock, I can tell you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLAH BLAH Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 An interesting read... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian McP Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 On 12/05/2021 at 12:41 PM, Ian McP said: Back in the 80's(?) I remember one of the Garrott brothers brought in one of their early versions of their Weinz parabolic stylus to the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) suite then run by RMIT Applied Physics dept. With the SEM's extended depth of field and high magnification (as opposed to an optical microscope) at X 1000 magnification the parabolic profile of the stylus was superbly defined! regards Ian found the pic! Mag was X1500 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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