edwinh
Active Member
Hello all,
About 15 years ago, I bought the TD 160 for $80. It worked but it was rough, so I've invested a bit into it, it was maintained about 10 years ago, bearing lubricated, etc. But the suspension has never been right. I bought new springs from Vinyl Nirvana and tried to get everything adjusted, but never got that Thorens bounce to work. A couple of years ago, I gave it to a local tech who was supposedly "the guy" for turntable work, along with a setup, he also replaced the wires going to the preamp. However, he seemed unable to get the suspension right and he used generic cables, which I suspect are just cheap interconnects with the RCAs on one end cut off, so the capacitance is likely pretty high. I have had Grado cartridges on it, which sound great, but suffer from the dreaded hum. I've been messing with this thing for years and never felt that it was quite right.
On a whim, I bought a Sansui SR-525 from Craigslist. It works fine and I transferred the Grado (Gold 3) to it and it sounds really nice. Speed is right on and the arm works well (it needed the weight, but that was easily found). At some point, I'll recap it, but so far, no issues. It's also nice to have a TT immune to footfalls. It seems to be highly regarded and from the specs, is actually a bit quieter than the TD 160.
So, I'm wondering what to do in the long run. Strip the Thorens down and completely rebuild it? Sell it and just live with the SR-525? I can't really afford to send it to VN for an overhaul. It seems like it should work better than it does, although, aside from the hum, it sounded fine.
What would you do?
About 15 years ago, I bought the TD 160 for $80. It worked but it was rough, so I've invested a bit into it, it was maintained about 10 years ago, bearing lubricated, etc. But the suspension has never been right. I bought new springs from Vinyl Nirvana and tried to get everything adjusted, but never got that Thorens bounce to work. A couple of years ago, I gave it to a local tech who was supposedly "the guy" for turntable work, along with a setup, he also replaced the wires going to the preamp. However, he seemed unable to get the suspension right and he used generic cables, which I suspect are just cheap interconnects with the RCAs on one end cut off, so the capacitance is likely pretty high. I have had Grado cartridges on it, which sound great, but suffer from the dreaded hum. I've been messing with this thing for years and never felt that it was quite right.
On a whim, I bought a Sansui SR-525 from Craigslist. It works fine and I transferred the Grado (Gold 3) to it and it sounds really nice. Speed is right on and the arm works well (it needed the weight, but that was easily found). At some point, I'll recap it, but so far, no issues. It's also nice to have a TT immune to footfalls. It seems to be highly regarded and from the specs, is actually a bit quieter than the TD 160.
So, I'm wondering what to do in the long run. Strip the Thorens down and completely rebuild it? Sell it and just live with the SR-525? I can't really afford to send it to VN for an overhaul. It seems like it should work better than it does, although, aside from the hum, it sounded fine.
What would you do?
