![garrard zero 100 cover garrard zero 100 cover](https://i.imgur.com/BZ43S8H.jpg)
All of these models shared an operational inconvenience (not a "defect" or "fault" since they are working as designed) in that if you started to play a record in AUTO and then wanted to pick up the arm and put it back onto its rest, you couldn't. The RC88 begat the Garrard Type A of 1961, which was proclaimed as being "the step beyond the turntable - the step beyond the changer - the world's first Automatic Turntable!" The Type A's successors were the Type A70 and the Lab 80 of 1964. The Lab 80 also suffered from its being a derivative of the RC88 record changer of 1958. Subsequent PE machines were rebranded Duals. Perpetuum-Ebner gave up after that and sold itself to Dual, which scrapped the PE2020 design. I often thought the PE 2020 was specifically designed in order to circumvent patents held by Garrard, Dual and Miracord, resulting in a Rube Goldberg-like mess of second-best and third-best design elements.and worse. It was even worse! Furthermore in normal consumer use it seemed to teeter on the ragged edge of malfunction most of the time. There was an automatic record changer of the time which was more arcane and complex in its design: the Perpetuum-Ebner 2020. Replacing those parts was a somewhat tedious job. Garrard did issue an upgraded part made of metal instead of plastic but it didn't show up until the followup model, the Lab 80 Mk II, along with an "escape" path in the cam. Turn the platter backwards into its automatic cycle and a plastic tip on the spindle-operating cam follower would become trapped in a dead-end in its cam, and would break off. The Lab 80 had a glaring design error which would disable it if an owner were unlucky enough to encounter it (and it wasn't all that hard to do). That you have one that's 45 years old and still works is nice, but few that we sold lasted more than a week before problems set in.
![garrard zero 100 cover garrard zero 100 cover](https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20191008/5dd9b571b1127585b1463642968df321.jpg)
![garrard zero 100 cover garrard zero 100 cover](https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/223125564331_/Garrard-Zero-100S-Turntable.jpg)
Almost all of us in the store switched customers over to the Dual equivalent, as it was not only a better turntable to begin with, but a less troublesome one too. While I certainly can't dispute your experience, my statement was based on the enormous amount of returns on the LAB-80 we received at Lafayette Radio when we were selling the unit back then.