Ok let me have it! Record decks... advice!

Just picked up a rather nice Thorens TD160 Mk2, it has a Rega RB200 and a Rega 100 cart on it. I'm using a Project el-cheapo phono stage. What's the best value for money upgrades e.g. new cart and phono stage. Open to buying your stuff off you if you've got something good too!

I can actually afford a fair bit as I'm £225 under budget and not skint at the moment either.

Thanks, Tim

 

If you can wait till the new year, I may have something which might interest you. What is your budget, including proceeds of sale of your current deck?

 

James, the words "£225 under budget" should tell you that your offer won't be of interest to Tim.


Tim, the 160 is a really nice deck. You can get any number of go-faster parts from Phonosophie, for example. If you feel up to it, you can post on www.analog-forum.de which is the best source of Thorens knowledge I know of. Forum language is German, but if you ask in English, I'm sure you'll get a response.

The probable advice will be to invest in a better arm and cartridge, but the deck should keep you happy for quite some time.

 

Agree with Markus, the deck should serve you well.

But the best thing you can do right now is look at nice budget phono stage, the project is a horrible device. Very flat and compressed.

 

Ah, I wondered what was making the trebble sound so shut in. Imaging is pretty good though. Bass is a little rounded.

Hi James. I guess you're talking about the LP12... (didn't realise you were selling that).

 

I may be selling it, or I may not, we'll see.

 

See if you can find a s/h Dynavector P75 phono stage. It's around £450 new, so s/h perhaps £300? And it will scale up if you upgrade to a better deck or cartridge in time.

 

The EAR 834p at Retro Reproductions for £235 second hand. http://www.retroreproduction.com/used-price-list.pdf

An Ortofohn MC 15 super II.
www.phonophono.de

 

Another vote for the MC15 - really can't fault its performance at the price.

The only caveat is that the output might not be high enough if you're using a valve phono stage, inwhich case you might want to consider a high-output MC cart from Dynavector or somesuch....

DT

 

Hi DT! It works ok into a MM stage of an 834p, although slightly quiet.

If you want to wick the volume up..

I really like Clearaudio's moving magnet cartridges. I think these are great around the £100-£200 mark.

http://www.needledoctor.com/s.nl/sc.7/category.121/it.A/id.2180/.f

 

I'd only use a MM cart on the Rega 200.

 

Right! I've got a problem. The deck is going loud then quiet then loud etc. It's happenning every second. The plinth isn't running exactly level (nothing I can do about this). Any ideas what's wrong. I've set the arm up to 1.5 grams (then 1.75), this makes no difference.

Arg!!

 

I suspect (but dont know) that its either the way the cartridge is tracking, or a flocked cartridge.

anyone?

 

Oh and it's not the phono stage. Certainly something wrong with the deck. The cart gets my suspicious vote!.

By the way, I have about £1000 hanging around at the moment. What sort of sound quality (versus say CD) would you expect for that?

Thanks all, Tim

 

£1000 !!

Where did that come from !! lol.

If you chose to put your Thorens back on e-bay and start over... and bought a phono, cart and deck all second hand for £1k... careful shopping should get you something high end phono wise...

better than cd? Well I think it could sound better, but thats very contentious!

.. funnily enough, I'd still be looking at similar phono stages and carts to what I was talking about before, but I'd be wanting a better deck to put them on..

like a second hand N.A. Interspace or a second hand VPI for example.

 

With a grand in hand I'd go straight to Cherished Record Co and snap-up one of their VPI Aries Scouts for £950.

Which leaves you £50 for a cart. Ummm......

 

Ortofon 510 to get you started ;->


Regards

Jason