Thorens TD 160, Land of confusion!

haggy38

haggy38

Active Member
Hi guys,


I'm been doing lots of reading in different forums regarding stylus and cartridge for a Thorens TD 160 MKI and TP 16 tonearm, I'm just a beginner and been using for the last couple of years a Pro Ject Debut turntable without any issues, I decided to enter in to the vintage audio path, Pioneer for me, amplifier, deck, reel to reel etc...... And I need a nice vintage turntable, a friend of mine got this Thorens and did my research about it, and sold immediately!!

But every time I tried to find answers for the cartridge and stylus I get more confuse, mass, VTF....... Opinions differ for an appropriate combo for this turntable, I want to maintain it as original as possible, just need a nice combo on budget...under $100 if is possible. Most of my vinyl are classic Rock, jazz and heavy metal from the 80s, sorry for the long story but I think it's important for the proper decision.

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Gustavo
 
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I'm not sold with the "budget" carts - there are LOTS of discussions regarding those - all will work with yout tonearm, all will sound "fine" and all just aren't good enough to show what the TD160 can manage.
I'll save my mony for the Denon DL110 (at some 190$), which feets the arm, well - likr a glove, and starts showing the sparks.

One day, you might want to go even better, and the TT won't get in the way
 
Well my budget is very tight now, I bought a new belt, suspension, missing tonearm cap, motor protection rod and protractor.....:no:

Money is evaporating!!

Gustavo
 
I use a Stanton 681EEE and like the combo a lot. Doing a search, it seems others like the combo as well. The cart itself can be had fairly cheaply and aftermarket replacement stylus options are fairly cheap and plentiful.
 
A more than decent budget cart for that turntable/tonearm is the Audio Technica AT-95E. That would be my choice for "under $100". For a bit over $100, I'd go for the Nagaoka MP-110. As nkorah mentioned, that turntable/tonearm can handle more expensive cartridges with ease. A few of those would be: Audio Technica AT-7V, Denon DL-110 (high output moving coil) and Denon DL-103 and 103r (low output moving coil).

I probably ought to mention that the TP-16 headshells use, sometimes hard to find, metric screws to attach the cartridge to the headshell. I had to go to a specialty nuts and bolts retailer in my town to find some. There used to be an eBay vendor out of Spain that had them for sale. You might want to check there if you find that you need an assortment of various lengths.

Good luck. That's a nice turntable that you have there.
 
I think you could still do the mod in the thread. You would just have a couple of holes in the trim piece.
 
The two most critical components in an analog system are your speakers and phono cartridge. Everyone use to figure 50% of your system worth should be concentrated in your speakers. And around 15 % in your turntable system. But I have a feeling your $100 investment to be about right. Quality control in the past favored Stanton. Today I have to depend on others who I have known for years before I retired for recommendations. That's how I ended up using Dynavector now.
 
ranch 22b said:
A more than decent budget cart for that turntable/tonearm is the Audio Technica AT-95E. That would be my choice for "under $100". For a bit over $100, I'd go for the Nagaoka MP-110. As nkorah mentioned, that turntable/tonearm can handle more expensive cartridges with ease. A few of those would be: Audio Technica AT-7V, Denon DL-110 (high output moving coil) and Denon DL-103 and 103r (low output moving coil).

I probably ought to mention that the TP-16 headshells use, sometimes hard to find, metric screws to attach the cartridge to the headshell. I had to go to a specialty nuts and bolts retailer in my town to find some. There used to be an eBay vendor out of Spain that had them for sale. You might want to check there if you find that you need an assortment of various lengths.

Good luck. That's a nice turntable that you have there.
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Thanks,

It seems it's going to be a project now.
 
It's not that bad - worst case, you buy another headshell for $70 or so and use it as intended, and have the current headshell as a backup for a less-used cart (maybe one for rougher records, mono, etc).
 
haggy38 said:
Thanks,

It seems it's going to be a project now.
Click to expand...

Well, the good news is that if you do the headshell modification, you won't need any of those pesky "Thorens screws" to mount a cartridge. I did the mod on one of my Thorens headshells and it took all of about 15 minutes. Also, by the way, there is an eBay vendor (out of England) selling that headshell trim piece for very reasonable money.
 
ranch 22b said:
Well, the good news is that if you do the headshell modification, you won't need any of those pesky "Thorens screws" to mount a cartridge. I did the mod on one of my Thorens headshells and it took all of about 15 minutes. Also, by the way, there is an eBay vendor (out of England) selling that headshell trim piece for very reasonable money.
Click to expand...


Hi,

Yes I'm going to buy it, this she'll mod was horrible done!!

Lets say I get a Unmodified shell, is there another cartridge stylus option?


Gustavo
 
Last edited:
Hi,

Not to sound like a broken record on loop repeat, but fit this cartridge :
http://www.lpgear.com/product/LPGAT95VL.html
Nothing else comes close at $100, and it matches your arm well.
Its really big on performance and very long stylus life for the price.

The headshell needs some work to allow proper alignment.

rgds, sreten.
 
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