infinitesadness Posted January 10, 2009 Posted January 10, 2009 Hi guys, ive just purhcased a second hand mint condition Thorens TD 166 MKII turntable off trademe, and really want to upgrade it. it currently has the stock/factory arm on it and a very old Grado cartridge. anybody got any ideas of reasonable arm/catridge uprgrades?
Citroen Posted January 10, 2009 Posted January 10, 2009 http://www.theanalogdept.com/bushman.htm SME 3009 Jonathan G (jg1) has modded one of these I think..are you about???
infinitesadness Posted January 10, 2009 Author Posted January 10, 2009 thanks newbie, yes that is the TT that i have, though mine is purely stock standard, his looks great :-) it has definitely given me ideas for modding, especially with the Rega RB250 tonearm he is using. cheers.
Citroen Posted January 11, 2009 Posted January 11, 2009 http://www.trademe.co.nz/Electronics-photography/Home-audio/Turntables/auction-197007832.htm
infinitesadness Posted January 11, 2009 Author Posted January 11, 2009 mate.... if only i wasnt so broke right now, and the missus wasnt already angry with me for buying another turntable when i already have a perfectly good one...
Shane Hanify Posted January 12, 2009 Posted January 12, 2009 VinylFan;80856 wrote: mate.... if only i wasnt so broke right now, and the missus wasnt already angry with me for buying another turntable when i already have a perfectly good one... I assume you weren't the winning bidder then So how does the Thorens sound compared to the P1? I take it the 166 isn't entry level? Cheers, Shane
infinitesadness Posted January 12, 2009 Author Posted January 12, 2009 it seems to have alot more detail, but it needs alot of work done to it, im going to get it serviced pretty soon, and ive already looked at new cartridges (grado) and new tonearms (rega) but i think the whole rig could do with a quick service too. it should work out great in the end though....its my new project for the year...
Shane Hanify Posted January 12, 2009 Posted January 12, 2009 VinylFan;80934 wrote: it seems to have alot more detail, but it needs alot of work done to it, im going to get it serviced pretty soon, and ive already looked at new cartridges (grado) and new tonearms (rega) but i think the whole rig could do with a quick service too. it should work out great in the end though....its my new project for the year... Sounds brilliant. Have a great time with it and don't annoy the missus too much. Cheers, Shane.
Citroen Posted January 12, 2009 Posted January 12, 2009 Maybe nostalgia settling in but I would have thought that the Thorens would be more the equivalent of a Rega Planar 3. Now what the Planar 3 equates to in terms of the P1/P2/P3...???
jasper1553552693 Posted January 12, 2009 Posted January 12, 2009 Hi I have had a Rega arm put on that very same TT. Listening to it right now with a Reson Reca cartridge at the pointy end. Sounds lovely, though I am no expert. Just be aware the Rega arm is longer than the Thorens and can't just be placed in the same hole from whence the Thorens arm was removed. That would have been nice. From memory I think the arm pivot is about 10mm further from the spindle than the Thorens.
infinitesadness Posted January 12, 2009 Author Posted January 12, 2009 Just be aware the Rega arm is longer than the Thorens and can't just be placed in the same hole from whence the Thorens arm was removed. That would have been nice. From memory I think the arm pivot is about 10mm further from the spindle than the Thorens. Oh really? i wasnt aware of that, is there much work involved in it? i was going to get it all done professionally anyways, im no techie when it comes to 26 year old turntables. I was also thinking about replacing the original RCA leads with something better but i have no idea what sort to use? has anybody had experience doing this? would you just use monster cable or could you go further up? audioquest? QED?? Nordost??? Cheers, from Shaun.
jasper1553552693 Posted January 12, 2009 Posted January 12, 2009 I screwed a small wooden block onto the floating chassis which was exposed where the arm was removed. This sits slightly above the level of the deck. I then used a slightly larger rectangle of 6mm pewter coloured melamine and screwed and glued that to the block. This gave me more area to mount the rega arm I bought which has the 3 tripod shaped mounting feet. I then screwed the arm to the melamine top and by, probably mainly good luck have it pretty well 222-223mm from the spindle which is correct by all accounts. The arm seems to be parallel to the record when playing so some luck there too I think with the VTA! My arm came with cable emerging from it. I removed the stock RCA's and had Eichmann Bullet Plugs soldered so cable may not be an issue.
infinitesadness Posted January 13, 2009 Author Posted January 13, 2009 Well after finding a hum from the left hand channel the other day, i immediately thought it was a cartridge fault, and unplugged, then plugeed back in all the pins at the back of the cartridge, and somehow, the hum had gone and i was satisfied. though a couple of LP's later the hum came back, and i tried fixing the hum using the same method, and the hum seemed to go almost completely but not quite. a few tracks later and the hum was back, louder than ever. so i decided i would remove the tonearm wand to get a closer look at the cartridge, and noticed that while the tonearm wand was off, i was still getting a hum. In the end i tried unplugging and plugging back in the phono RCA cables and that got rid of the hum! my question is, did the cartridge ever have anything to do with the hum in the first place? Either way i took the turntable in for servicing this afternoon, the other guy that works at Turned on Audio "mark" is going to do it i think, including new RCA plugs, a new belt,m and re aligning the tonearm and checking the motor. hopefully all will be well when i get it back! i will start looking at cartridges when i get the TT back. i was reccomended the brand "Sumiko" does anybody have any experience with Sumiko cartridges?
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