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Thorens td 160

H

hugh s

Member
I have a this table lightly modded, heavier ply bottom, damped platter, and it hits the null points on the alignment gauge, it also has the stock factory tonearm.
It sounds pretty good to my old ears with a Shure V15 IV cartridge, even although this is not a perfect match for the stock tonearm according to info on this site.
Recently I have noticed that the tonearm drifts slightly to the outside of the record when being lowered for play. Any suggestions for a fix or am I looking at a new arm?
Thanks...Hugh
 
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Thorens Drift

Hi Hugh,

Sounds like anti-skate is set incorrectly. Which tonearm is it using? Does it have the rack and cage type bars, on which a weight can be hung, thereby setting anti-skateforce, or does it have integrated anti-skate dial, knob etc.?

Also, is turntable level? I had an experience where the un-level-ness of the turntable added to tonearm drift, but it was by no means dramatic - just a symptom.

Regards, Chris
 
Sorry forgot to mention that the table is level back to front and side to side. It has the tp 16 arm. anti-skate is set to match the cartridge tracking force at 1.5. Just wondering if there is any adjustments I can make to solve this issue. I will try changing the anti-skate setting. it has the dial.
 
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Their are different scales on that gauge, are you using the correct one? Also make sure you clean the rubber on top of the lifting mechanism arm.
Good luck!
Jim
 
ehoove said:
Their are different scales on that gauge, are you using the correct one? Also make sure you clean the rubber on top of the lifting mechanism arm.
Good luck!
Jim
Click to expand...

This is where I would start, as long as the table is level, the manual is available at the Analog Dept. and it clearly shows which scale to use. :thmbsp:
 
If it drifts back slightly (1mm) I wouldn't be too worried. There should be a slight outward force exerted by the anti-skate and you may just have very fluid tonearm bearings.

The anti-skate scale has four readings. Wet play conical, wet play eliptical, dry play conical, dry play eliptical. You should be reading off the last one which is the bottom reading (assuming you have an eliptical stylus on your V 15). On some TP 16 arms it is the sun symbol on the left and elipse on the right. Some arms use an elipse on the left that is not shaded. Make sure you are reading your 1.5g off the correct scale as divitdog and ehoove have mentioned.

On mine I track at 1.5g with a microline with AS at 1.25g. You may wish to lower yours a bit also if you are concerned.
 
Thanks for all the helpful suggestions,I double checked the setup and fiddled with the anti-skate, after setting the AS lower than the tracking force by .25gram the outward drift during the arm drop is almost non existant.
 
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