Thorens help - moved from US to Ireland

[atomiccoffey]

Hello!
I recently moved to Europe from the USA with my Thorens 166. I'm using a voltage converter, but it's not working reliably. It is not getting up to speed. I know these turntables were meant to be used on either 50 or 60hz, but I'm afraid I don't understand how to switch from one to the other. Is it supposed to happen automatically depending on 220 or 110?
Is it best to rewire it? I'm up for some basic modifications, but I'm not an audio repairperson.

thanks in advance!

 

[rothwellaudio]

I know these turntables were meant to be used on either 50 or 60hz, but I'm afraid I don't understand how to switch from one to the other.

You can't switch from one to the other. End of.
People who know more about that particular turntable will chime in, but the usual fix is to change the motor pulley size.

 

[gadget73]

The motor pulley is different. The way around it without having the pulley to swap is you use one of the external speed control units. THere are a couple different ones but I'd be lying if I could tell you any specific brands.

As for voltage, the way Thorens dealt with this is to simply add a resistor between the mains feed and the motor on 240v models. The actual motor was the same 120v unit. You can find it if you dig up the service manuals and look at the electrical schematic, such as it is. Not going to do anything for the speed but if you go with the speed controller and it spits out 240v instead of 120, I'd just stick the resistor in there instead of the voltage converter. Its a bit cleaner of a look IMO.

 

[WizardWG4]

Here's the info from the service manual.

 

[WizardWG4]

 

[WizardWG4]

As for the pulley, I would reach out to Audiosilente. There are several different versions but they'll be able to help you determine which parts you need.

http://www.audiosilente.com/spare-p...orens-td-160-td-166-td-145-td-165-td-125.html