A nifty turntable that I've been playing with, the Thorens TD-160 "Super" repro from Vinyl Nirvana..

Beautiful TT. I love plinths he does for the Thorens and ARs.

 

I love those Thorens Tables properly restored. After nearly 40 years of heavy constant use my< trusty DUAL CS 701 DD finally stopped spinning in the right speeds. WAY TOO FAST ..lol - so it was time for something else. After using vintage for all my lfe in the tt compartment I opted for the newest THORENS tables. Esp. after hearing a few samples where it sounded great. This model may not look as good as the TD 160 but I bet it will hold it's value for decades, too. The new TP 90 tonearm, springs in the feet - still a subchassis model. Automatic speed change and a dust cover easily attached or left off. All'n all this seems to be a great alternative to the usual REGA, Pro-Ject or Music Halls. The table has just been built and should be on the way to the distributer and from there to the store I bought mine from. THey said it should arrive at my door next week - so a review of the new THORENS 206 will follow.

Not sure when or if theses are available in the US at the moment. Thorens also built a brand new 12" tonearm for it's top Player- The TD 550 that Steve Jobs used to play his Vinyl with..
Can't wait to play some records again..This is how it looks like :

http://www.fono.de/Plattenspieler/Thorens/Thorens-TD-206

 

This brings back the memories - not quite in the same league but my first turntable was a Thorens TD-165

 

Thanks for that Dave, much appreciated. I guess what I'm asking is could someone describe the difference in the sonic character between a higher-end Rega and one of these beautiful Thorens or a suspension table in general? ie; more tonal accuracy, tighter bass, smoother mids and highs, etc. Many thanks.

 

I would describe it as more tonal accuracy.

 

Great turntable!!
That is a gorgeous example

I have had mine , a Thorens TD 160 BC Mk II, with SME 3009 series II (improved) arm since 1980.
It was unused for several years but serviced and upgraded with Ortofon 2M bronze cartridge last year.
To my shame I had never replaced the belt nor oiled the bearing.
However, when serviced it ran at exactly 331/3 and the bearing is fine.
They are so reliable and I will never let mine go, we've been through a lot together.
They are so reliable.
I'm enjoying listening to her right now
The improved one you have must be fantastic and a great price.
Enjoy it.

 

Merci!

 

For sure; the RP3, or Planar 3 before it, is a lovely slab of MDF, about as good as you'll get for that material. If you want to turn heads though...

 

Nice story Steve; there's a company in the UK - Inspire Hi Fi - who're doing some good work with Linn LP12 and Rega decks. They've put out their own range too - nice looking stuff.

http://www.inspirehifi.co.uk/turntable-index.html

 

Nice deck! Have you tried playing with the loading of the Ortofon Steve? On my system I’ve ended up at around 34k with, I am guessing, something like 200/250 total capacitance. Some interesting discussion here:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/ortofon-2m-black-frequency-response-charts.312499/

 

Always interesting to hear your observations. I'll bet there's some loading plugs somewhere amongst your multitude of gear...

 

Not to threadcrap,but for me it's the 60s and 70s that are the golden age of turntables.Simply because I like idlers,which I understand are more expensive to make.In looking around for a list of cartridges for my TD-135,I ended up at Lenco Heaven.There is a thread there about a TT maker in Italy called Audiosilente.
http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=16606.0
http://www.audiosilente.altervista.org/
Audiosilente has put out an updated version of the TD-124,they call the Black Stone.The guy will also custom make replacement parts for the TD-124 and Garrard 301.He also offers an upgrade kit for the 60s vintage Thorens.I may buy one of these. One wonders if they did not buy or otherwise obtain the possibly now public domain patent from Thorens.
This is the picture from the thread from a Finnish magazine.


Here is a review in English.
http://www.audiosilente.altervista.org/alterpages/files/blackstone.pdf

B*** ugly plinth ain't it? At 7500.00 Euros,it's out of my league as far as price is concerned.If I had to buy a brand new table,I would buy one of these TD-160s from Dave,but I thought I'd toss this out in case any body was interested.

 

Dave mounted a Cardas wired RB250 with 2M Black on a TD 166MKII for me a couple years back. Great dude, highly recommended. Table sounds lovely.

 

The Thorens TD-125 was used in Discotheque like Studio 54 in New York

They have pitch control

They used Grace arms or ADC with I believe Grace F9P the Pro version of the famous F9E


That was an audiophile Discotheque system

Just to young to have been there ....

Thanks

 

Great review and I couldn't agree more. I recently bought a restored TD125 mk2 from Dave at Vinyl Nirvana. paired with a dynavector 20x2l cart that Dave expertly installed himself the sound is simply incredible. The build quality of these tables is just really great. Dave provides outstanding service and his packing & shipping is second to none. I would recommend his services and turntables without hesitation!

 

Hi Steve,

Great to hear you like the TD160 Super. I have been using an original TD160 Super in my main system for the last 15 years. I bought it out of the classifieds for $150.00 back in 1998/1999. It had a Linn Basik arm on it that was no good. I took it to my hi-fi guru who did a complete service and fitted it with a Rega RB300 and a Denon DL304 MC cartridge.

I run it through an electrocompaniet ECP1 phono stage and then into a nice KT88 based integrated amp.

Still going strong and sounding just as glorious as ever. Mine was built in 1982 IIRC.

Cheers,

Mark

 

I bought a restored TD-160 Super from Dave last year with a Rega tonearm and Ortofon 2M Black and it is the deck I use the most at home. It just has great drive and resolution with my Croft and Dynavector phono stages. Dave is also a real mensch and goes above and beyond for his customers. I like the Thorens so much, I just ordered a Vinyl Nirvana restored Dual 1019 for my office system.

 

I just had a free-to-me 1219 rebuilt by a Dual expert in Brooklyn, and all I can say is a well-functioning Dual idler-drive can really charm the socks off ya.

 

Just out of curiosity, how does the TD 166 Mk II stack up against these 160 models? A friend at work gave me one of the former a few years back; it seems to run OK and I've thought about setting it up, maybe in a second system or as an "LP only" table in the main one, but the need to replace at least the stylus (missing from the cartridge, which appears to be an old higher end Audio Technica of the sort the local McIntosh/Nakamichi dealer used to push when I lived in Atlanta back in the early '80s), lack of space, and lack of a 78 speed has held me back so far.

 

My understanding was that the TD 166 did not offer quite as high a performance as the 160, but I don't know why I remember that.

 

Hi Steve,
Regardless of price, how does the Thorens compare with your new VPI?