Would a Thorens TD-160 base be an upgrade from a Rega Planar 2?

[Brett a]

I like my Planar 2 pretty good, but the damn motor noise!
It has an RB250 arm w/ Incognito wires and Expressimo counterweight.
I see Thorens TD160s for sale for less than the cost of the Rega subplatter upgrade.
Would it make sense to mount my RB250 on a Thornes 160 instead of upgrading the old Planar base? How quiet are the Thornes'? (I know they are often mod'ed w/Dynamat etc---I can do that.)
And if not Thornes, what other bases can be had for under $200 that might better the Planar? AR?
As always. thanks for your thoughts.

 

[hakaplan]

Don't know how married you are to belt drive, but I think that putting the Rega arm on a direct drive would probably the closest thing to a match made in heaven. Maybe look for a Pioneer PLC-590 or a Kenwood without an arm. Or a Technics SP model.

 

[Sid Hartha]

How quiet are the Thorens'?

There are none quieter.

As stated in the back of my original TD-160 manual:

The measured values for wow and flutter, rumble and signal-to-noise ratio of all Thorens turntables are actually so low and insignificant that we decided not to publish them.

You can laugh, but I remember reading Julian Hirsch's original review of that model, and he could not get a measurable noise or flutter reading from that table.

 

[ddarch]

Hi,

Yes, I think it's an upgrade. To my ears, having listened to belt, idler, and direct drive tables at various points in my life and for various amounts of time, I have come to the conclusion, the most musical tables are the belt-driven suspended subchassis tables. I have a friend with a P-2, and I have owned and lived with the Music Hall MMF-5 and MMF-7. I know it is cliche...but I found all three to be too clinical. I even found the lowly AR XA to be more engaging.

The TD-160 has a lot of potential. I would not go overboard with dynamat...the true "isolation" comes from the subchassis.

In regards to the motor on each...you will NOT find the 160 motor to be a great improvement, but you will see that the suspended subchassis completely isolates the motor from arm/platter.

Dave

 

[melofelo]

i'd be inclined to go for the thorens and rega combination...

the later (early 90's)incarnation of the thorens td160 actually came with an rb250 as standard here in the uk..i think it was the mark IV or V version...so there might be some info on the thorens forums that give suggestions for arm mounting

...the rega might use a different mounting distance from the spindle centre than the original thorens arm...

this will be an important measurement to get right for ensuring a successful match as you will want to end up using the correct rega alignment geometry for your cartridges given their headshell design...and achieving this will depend on getting the rega mounting distance spot on..

i reckon there must be some tonearm board adapter that facilitates this however...as i've seen quite a few thorens decks using rega arms

its often been suggested that the weakest part of the thorens turntable series below their td320 and td 321 was their tonearm...

some users have tweaked the original td 150./160 with diy mods and aftermarket arms and will pretty much swear by them in terms of sound quality...regardless of price...so its well worth researching and tinkering..

 

[melofelo]

I have come to the conclusion, the most musical tables are the belt-driven suspended subchassis tables.

my ears seem to favour belt driven 3 point suspendeds too...:scratch2:

 

[Tedrick]

Don't know how married you are to belt drive, but I think that putting the Rega arm on a direct drive would probably the closest thing to a match made in heaven. Maybe look for a Pioneer PLC-590 or a Kenwood without an arm. Or a Technics SP model.

Look for a Kenwood KD-500 without an arm. They show up fairly regularly on both A'gon and eBay.

 

[gio corleone]

I've heard it too. I was about to replace the original TP16 with a Rega RB300 until a friend got interested and bought the unit just 2 months ago. Could it be the reason why Thorens came out with a TD160 "Super" armless model? Just my thoughts, correct me if i am wrong though.