New Thorens TD-402 Direct Drive TT- Ouch!

Mikey Fremer no like!
The Thorens TD402 DD Direct Drive Semi-Automatic Turntable

Interestingly, I know a few people who very much like their TD-203 tables with the uni-pivot tone arms..for about the same price.

 

Wow, its not every day that one reads a review like that!

 

It kind of looks like that Monoprice TT that sells for $170. Prob same Taiwan factory.

 

They've been bad for a while, look at the 2.5/5 star on Amazon Thorens TD-240.

 

Very likely sourced from Ya Horng as OEM model DL-4215DU: DL-4215DU DIRECT DRIVE TURNTABLE YAHORNG ELECTRONIC CO., LTD.

 

Well done Mikey for a honest review
most reviews read like a press release these days

 

I asked Thorens about the issues raised in that review. Their answer:
—-
Dear Raphael,
Michael Fremer got a pre-production sample. We have recognized the problem and changed it.
—-

I also asked Thorens about the design team behind their new turntables, including the TD402: It was designed and engineered by Helmut Thiele and Walter Fuchs among others.

Helmut Thiele is a famous German industrial designer and he has designed several Thorens products in the past. He’s responsible for the retro-look of Thorens new turntables.

Walter Fuchs is the turntable specialist at Fink Audio Team, a German design and engineering company lead by Karl-Heinz Fink. Fink has done lots of work for Tannoy, Q-Acoustics, Boston Acoustics, ALR-Jordan among others.
And Fink Team were responsible for the Thorens TD309, 206/309 and 203.
And the new TP 92, 90 and 82 unipivot tonearm.

The TD402 is designed and conceived in Germany and built in Taiwan to Thorens specifications. It uses the latest direct drive from Hanpin in a custom designed plinth and custom version of the tonearm.

It seems like the direct drive motor is the same as in the new Teac TN-4D.

 

It seems to me that the review should be rewritten after listening to the updated turntable. To pass judgement on this TT from a prototype is not warranted. The bias against semi-automatic and automatic TT's today is astounding. The new Thorens TD148a fully automatic TT at $2,000.00 is outstanding.

 

Thanks for checking with Thorens, but they should have NEVER given an finished product to a famous reviewer!

Seems like a beginners mistake for a company that is already in business for so long.
They now have to come with an exceptional product to rectify this mistake.

 

I don't understand why Michael Fremmer, an experienced reviewer, would stop at reviewing this turntable with the supplied AT VM95 E, a mediocre sounding cartridge.

He has at his disposal a breadth of very fine cartridges that he has used in previous reviews to give justice to an otherwise finely made turntable. I have owned Thorens in the past, and I can tell you that pairing it with a variety of fine sounding Moving Coil cartridges is a pleasure. When evaluating this turntable I am primarily looking at the performance of the motor (WOW & Flutter) and the S/N A Weighted.

The electronics are very high quality here and I can't wait to pair it up to a stellar cartridge that does it justice. The Audio Technica of today is certainly not in the same class as Grado or even Denon, to keep it Japanese.

Michael has done this type of review before, so I will be asking him to do it again and give us all a clue.

 

My understanding is that he got a unit for photos, not for making a review and he did a review anyway. A misunderstanding between them.

Anyway, he liked the TD1600.