Thorens TD-124

I sold my 301, 401, and TD-124 once I had a listen to the corian plinthed PTP Lenco I put together. Morch DP-6 arm, not the Lenco arm. Better than the Garrards and Thorens, all around.

Steve

 

Now let me show off the holy grail of TD124 restoration: original Thorens new old stock TD124 main bearing, part number CB761. I bought two of these 15 years ago and I wonder how many are left out there. You can buy restored units from several specialised sellers, but an original and never used one is not easy to find.

 

I am sorry because I offended the sensibility of Lenco owners and lovers, but as @Dubmart already pointed out I was talking about stock units. Of course, replacing the chassis, the plinth, the bearing, the arm, the power supply and so on and so forth may lead to exceptionally well sounding turntables.

 

Wow, nice! Is it just the bottom part or does it have the all important spindle too? I ended up with the ridiculously expensive Schopper bearing in my 124 as my original spindle had some very odd pitting I’ve not been able to explain given it was obviously a very low-use deck in all other respects. The Schopper seems nicely made and works well, but I’d probably be just as happy with a mint original and some money in my back pocket!

 

No offense taken, don't worry. I also sold the Merrill Heirloom, and LP 12 , once I started with the idlers. My main Lenco is on a PTP-4 plate, and it works for me. Wish I still had the 301, 401, and TD-124 here, but the Lenco does everything they did. And I've worked with the SMEs, Goldmund reference, big VPIs, and some others, and I'm not missing anything as far as I can tell.

 

Wow...just wow. That truly is a thing of beauty...bravo.

 

Yeah. All the effort that goes into restoring these kinds of older decks is a pretty big turnoff. (124 owners, please convince me I'm wrong!) Though I wish I did, I don't see myself having the time or patience to pursue a restoration project like this anytime soon. @action pact if I ever do decide to dive into this I hope you would be willing to be my restoration advisor.

 

You right. My full-spec restored 124 costed me about €1000. Beautiful base, NOS SME and Shure V15IIIMR included. 15 years ago that was still possible.

 

Except in Japan, I knew people selling 301s to Japan 30 years ago, I also knew a Turkish guy who lived here who was telling anybody who'd listen how wonderful the 124 was twenty years ago, I did hear his 124, but didn't particularly rate it, no idea whether or how it was modded and I really didn't rate his amps which may not have helped, having said that I also know of a few 401s and the odd 301 being thrown into skips twenty years ago as well, so I guess most people didn't want them. As far as I recall my G-99 was under £50, possibly just £25, I also picked up a Garrard 4HF for around £30, but that was the mid-nineties, records were a lot cheaper then as well.

 

You see, that's the opposite of how a lot of us feel. I enjoy the process, and at the end have something to not only enjoy, but be proud of. But I can also totally understand not wanting to bother with all of that.

If ever you change your mind, I'd be happy to lend a hand!

 

It was/is just the bearing, not the spindle. Metallurgy dictates that when you have friction between 2 metal parts one must be hard metal, the other soft metal. General rule, lubrication necessary anyway. For the TD124 the hard part is the spindle, it is mirror polished and easy to check, if it is shining and brilliant all over it is OK, it will never wear out unless oil was missing then it has scratches. The bearing bronze, on the contrary, does wear out by design with time, the more lubrication the slower the wear.
So a mirror finish spindle + a new (old stock) bearing + the right amount of oil is the right recipe to as-new performances. I recently pulled the platter with its spindle out of the bearing to check the oil level. Upon inserting it back in place it took some 10 minutes for the platter to slide full down! More than tight, even if it turns free for 1 minute when turning the table off from 33rpm.

 

Mine was way weirder than that!



Note the area of odd black pitting. As I say I can’t explain it as the shaft itself has very little wear and is otherwise in excellent condition. Looks almost like a chemical reaction and you can feel it with a fingernail. It only overlaps the top bronze bushing by a mm or so, so I could probably have got away with it, but I am totally obsessive when it comes to these things so I replaced it with a brand new Schopper bearing:



A nicely made piece of kit with very good tolerences, but predictably crazy audiophile pricing. It actually cost twice what I paid for the TD-124!

PS I have almost enough spares now to make another TD-124! I’ve certainly got enough to keep it running in perfect condition for the rest of my life.

 

Spares for the 124? don't get me started...

 

Ha! I bet every real 124 fan has a similar stash! From memory I’ve got a complete chassis, three arm boards (including a really nice SME perspex one), an idler, a full set of spare bronze bushings for every bearing (I replaced every bushing in my deck, e.g. step-pulley bushings, idler bushings etc and tended to buy two of each in case I had any issue installing them), three step-pulleys, the bearing pictured and its lower half, an alloy sub-platter (I have the green iron one fitted), a spare but imperfect top-platter, many grommets, several mushrooms, a spare metal speed-control band (the one part I am actually afraid of breaking), a spare strobe-lamp and enough drive belts to stretch to the moon and back! I will eventually sell some of this stuff as much is just here due to laziness/learning. I just want to keep enough to be sure the deck has a very long life ahead.

PS I have four SME 3009s too!

 

Lol......my gosh......what a monster I started. I have to admit, I'm like Steve, I don't want to have to maintain a turntable. I just want it to work. My 2 Regas are looking better and better to me right now. Lol...

 

On the other hand, the guys 124s are fifty+ years old and my 301 is from 1954, I'm not sure many Regas are going to still be spinning when they are fifty years old, as someone mentioned earlier high end vintage decks will likely outlive us, just as they've often outlived the original owners, and become family heirlooms, assuming we can convince the younger generations of their joys.

 

Don’t underestimate the fun and satisfaction of actually creating/saving something though! I love doing this stuff, it is the exact opposite of the sort of modern consumerism of discarding stuff in landfill, my little stand against a crazy world! My 124 is almost as old as I am (my Leak amp is older), it will see me out and hopefully go on to bring satisfaction to another generation in the future. This is ‘green’ sustainable hi-fi! It id free too as I’d certainly get more back for it if I sold it (and my parts stash) than I paid, and by a fair margin. This being my approach to all audio kit - I try to ‘invest’ rather than ‘spend’ and just love the classic/vintage kit arena for this reason.

PS Nothing wrong with Rega though, that’s classic kit too! I’ve owned the ubiquitous Planar 3 in the distant past, a P9 too.

 

Neither do I. But once a TD-124 is right, it won’t really need anymore maintanance than any other turntable. Now, getting one right is going to require either a little money and a lot of work or simply a lot of money, that’s the way these things go. Though it doesn’t need to be too expensive (relatively speaking) with all the info available to you online.

Find your TD-124. Have Jim Campbell restore it (<$1000). Buy a simple plinth from Jim or Vinylista, a fancier one from Artisan Fidelity Or Woodsong, and an Ortofon, SME, or Schick tonearm and off you go. This can all be done for <$5000, and all you’ll have to do is place the table in the plinth and the arm on the arm board. If you want to spend considerably less than this, then yes you’re going to have to learn and work.

 

LOL...guys, I have plenty of vintage gear, a 1960 Garrard Type A turntable among them. I fully understand the DIY aspect. But I think a main table has to be reliable and just work. The Rega does do that. I'm happy enough with the Rega RP1 and Shure M91Ed.

 

You have sharp eyes Jimi

 

I didn't mean to threadcrap guys, I love reading about all your adventures with this stuff, and I do hope one day to have the time, motivation, and money to undertake a project like this.

 

You have a nice turntable Steve

 

everyone with a 124 has a nice turntable Jim