Thorens TD124 turntable

The analog guy at my local dealer swears up and down about his TD124 and he sells the big two commercial tables! I also agree with him that I am not a fan of an idler wheel being directly in contact with the platter after my past experiences when compared to the dead black noise floor of a low torque belt drive. This is only going in my ESL57 system and the way he describes it this ought to be a great combination.

So I'd always been curious about them, I remember there was a time when these could be had for $1000 all day long. In fact I think @action pact said he paid close to that for his gorgeous example? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I always had them in the back of my mind and thought it would be a nice change of pace, but only after selling my Nottingham. I've been watching auctions since then and prices are more in the $1500+ range. Market has been amazing since 11/9 and I am thinking about finally buying one and putting up a WTB ad. What is a fair price to put up? TT alone is fine, I can sort the plinth, arm board and tonearm.

One other question- I have nearly every mm45 and ap45 Blue Note and will only flip records with the platter stopped to prevent scuffs. How fast does the 124 come up to 45 RPM?

 

I got the hi fi bug from a buddy who had a TD124 and ESL57s. Certainly did sound very good over there.

 

Yes, I paid $1000 for my one-owner '61, which had been well-maintained for the most part. I think I bought it 3-4 years ago?

To answer your question, the platter comes up to speed instantly, like 1/2 second, when switching speeds. The clutch that stops the subplatter is handy too.

 

@hvbias , IIRC correctly you're up in NH, right? I don't know if you've ever heard a TD-124 before, but if not, you're welcome to come down here and check mine out (with a few MM Blue Note 45s, of course!).

 

Thanks for the offer, but I don't think it will be necessary; he assures me they are the only vintage idler that have the dead black background as something like a Nottingham and he has plenty of experience with idlers/turntables. At $1000 it would have been an easier purchase decision. Not entirely sure I will do it at these current prices since it's only going in a secondary system.

 

To be fair... My $1000 TD-124 wasn't 100% restored, although it needed very little to get it where it needed to be.

Backgrounds are very quiet, but the backgrounds on my resto-modded sprung-suspension AR are even blacker.

 

I was a few beers in when I posted the thread. If some place had these as one click purchase I might have done it last night

I do appreciate the info about your AR, black backgrounds are one thing that I place fairly highly on my source components so that plus the higher prices means I think I will stick with what I have.

 

It's a shame my Garrard 301 doesn't have black backgrounds by virtue of not being a TD124.

Buying local is always good, but I think I'd branch out in my search from just that guy. I'd look at Woodsong audio, ebay, etc. I think its easier to buy a deck based on cosmetics and just assume you're going to spend another few hundred having it professionally refurbished. Plinth and tonearm decisions are the harder part of the process IMO.

 

The TD124 is more of a hybrid than purebred and one reason why that salesman likes it over others and IME after hearing numerous Garards, Lenco from Dobbins, Nantais, etc I agree with him. I was a big Lenco fan around the time LH started up and have several friends that went down the idler path. I just value different things being brought up on digital and its flawless noise floor. FWIW it was after exploring those types of turntables that I got attracted to stuff like Basis and TechDas which have incredibly low noise floor.