The strange, sad tale of the Australian cartridge designers the Garrott Brothers...vinyl fanaticism takes a bizarre, sad turn

ok, so like i said i am looking for a new cartridge and i was researching one called the Garrott K1 that was around my price range...ended up on some Australian audiophile board and found this story of the guys that made the original design....crazy.

The tragic story of the Garrott Brother surely ranks amongst the saddest and strangest in all audiophilia. As far as I can tell, beginning in the late 1970s and running into the early 1990s, the Brothers, twins it seems and based in Australia, produced a highly distinguished line of MM and MC cartridges.

Apparently, their work involved the application of some of the advances first pioneered by the designers of the famed London/Decca cartridges to MM and MC designs. Although they worked in relative obscurity, since their untimely deaths in the early 1990s (about which more later) their designs have been embraced and championed by a small but loyal following, mostly in Great Britain, but also in the U.S. as well.

Jerry Raskins certainly appears to be one of their fans, and so I am as of two weekends ago. Many feel that their MM cartridges represent the summit of that design type. They (the firm) also make a line of well-regarded MCs none of which I have heard.

Sadly, one of the twins was diagnosed with congenital and inoperable heart failure in the early 1990s. Rather than live in a world dominated by bad-sounding digital recordings and with interest in high-end vinyl reproduction reduced to a trickle (remember this was almost 20 years ago), the brothers and their twin wives instead committed ritual suicide in 1991 (I lie not.)

Fortunately, a loyal employee preserved some of the product molds and design schematics. An Australian holding company called Audio Dynamics Pty. Ltd. obtained the right to produce the designs and to distribute them under the Garrott Brothers name.

Based on what I heard at my cousins, this line of cartridges deserves much wider distribution in the U.S. Maybe you can convince our buddy NG to review the 2 models that currently are available from the Needle Doctor.

wtf!

and you all say you 'love' vinyl

wow, cool. and weird. and sad too. where's the movie???

http://www.garrottbrothers.com/

woah.

perhaps the suicide was partially motivated by his inoperable heart condition?

also: neil young has nothing on these guys

wait does neil young design cartridges

I know this is a very old post ... but I was doing a search on the Garrott Brothers.

Years ago I owned several Decca cartridges and sent them to the Garrott Brothers for re-tipping and repair.

Was very sad to hear about this tragic ending.