Garrard LAB

Not much information on the Garrard LAB survives. In period print the name shows up mostly with two things: the Lab 80 model and the later Synchro-Lab motor series.

Garrard's own advertising in Audio (October 1964, p.33) listed the LAB 80 as an automatic transcription turntable at $99.50. That made it the priciest of the three Garrard automatics shown with it - the Type A70 was $84.50 and the Model 50 was $44.50. A couple of years later, HiFI-Stereo (October 1966, p.18) said that anyone wanting to see fine metal craftsmanship should pick up a Lab 80 and look at the underside, and it called attention to the ribbed, rigid structure.

The LAB name carried into the Synchro-Lab era. Garrard's ads in Audio described the new Synchro-Lab motor as a true synchronous motor that kept the desirable characteristics of an induction type (November 1967, p.53). They also claimed that, because it was driven by the rigidly controlled 60-cycle current rather than variable voltage, it guaranteed unwavering musical pitch (August 1968, p.5). The same 1968 ad stated that this motor powered five new Garrard automatic turntables in the Synchro-Lab Series.

Past those period mentions, the Garrard LAB itself is essentially undocumented in the archive's records. The fuller mechanical story is on the dedicated Lab 80 and Lab 80 Mk II pages.