Turntable advice please

Hi Guys,
Thanks in advance to anyone who answers my first post on this newly found site.
I've just made the first changes to my system for about the last 12/15 years, the cahge being the cd player. It now stands as follows;
Cyrus CD6,NaimNac62/Hicap/Nap250, Stidio Monitor speakers, Stax Gamma/SRD6 phoes. With little left in the upgrade pot I now want some advice on the turntable. I have 2 turntables in use at present and want to upgrade one if possible as both although sounding slightly different, are still acceptable to my ears.
Anyway, I have a Rega Planar 3 with RB300 arm and A&R P78 cartridge, and a Thorens TD160B mk 2 with RB 300 arm and Goldring G 1042 cartridge, ( I carried out lots of tweaky bits to the td 160 to bring it near to 160s performance about 20 odd years ago, can hardly remember what I actually did now )
Any advice on which to concentrate on as I said I dont particularly feels like spending the amount I would need to do to actually replace either of these.
Cheers Bri.

 

Welcome to the forum, Bri.

Which turntable do you prefer now? If you like the Thorens, you could get good money for the RP3 on eBay, which could help your upgrade budget. TD 160s aren't fetching so much.

 

Hi, thanks for the welcome,
What I haven't done is change the cartridge round, I actually prefer the sound of the Thorens with G1042, but I'm fairly sure its the more detailed analytical sound of the cartridge I like,
Bri, :beer:

 

What actual upgrades are available for each of these, I really am way out of touch, still got some of my hearing left, although a lifetime in engineering and too much shooting has left me a little slightly audibly(sp) dulled
Bri.

 

try
www.theanalogdept.com
for all things Thorens.

 

Thanks Bob, very usefull, good site. Any link for all things Rega? :rds2: :rds2:

 

put the 300b on the td160....

rebuild the arm board ie make one fro perspex get something like a hi output moving coil ie dynovector10x5

look to rebuild the plinth and base ....you have the makings of a very good tt

the way to check lock down the transit bolts and play the thorens, it still should be on a par with the rega !

I did this very early in my TT owner ship of a 160bc [30 yrs ago] the thorens still had the transit screws locked ....I was young ! It was still the better just of my mates rega2. Once released the td160 was head and shoulders the better tt.

 

There are a few mods avaliable for the Rega deck,but you'd might as well just buy a new P5.

 

See original post, already got an rb300 on each. Almost bought a dynavector 25 years ago, must admit I had forgot/not considered a high output MC. Question then, would the output from this be equal in amp output volumn terms, to that of say my Goldring cartridge??
Arm board is 3mm alluminium, sounded better 25 years ago when I changed it .
So now thinking in terms of cartridge upgrade for the Thorens/rega arm for listening to, and rebuild the Rega 3 into a solid stone/marble plinth to cater for my tinkering desires.
Anyone tried a non sprung rega type TT on a bed of 1"bubble wrap

Bri

 

Hmmm, Iknow what your saying but it doesn't satisfy my desire to either tinker, or keep me hard earned intact
Bri.

 

So how about an SME 3009mk11 on the td160? any point?
Bri.

 

SME 3009 arms look nice but I doubt that it'll be an actual improvement over the RB300 in terms of performance. I'd be more inclined to look at adding the Michell Technoweight to your Rega arm on the Thorens, as this is easily reversible in the unlikely event that you don't like what it does. I'd then think about adding some s/hand MC cards to your Naim pre in place of the 322 MM boards, and trying out a MC cart such as the Denon 103, or, for a bit more money, an Audio Technica OC9MLII from www.lpgear.com.

All my opinion, obviously.

 

Having read a little since my first enquiry, I kind of fancy trying the dynavector in the existing set ups as an initial route?
Bri

 

Yes the SME does look good, espec if you make a carbon fibre armboard to put it on, very nice. Ive no experience of the RB300 but those that have say its an improvement on the SME, so stick with that.

 

OK, gone off on a complete tangent :rds2: :rds2: :rds2: and bought a Logic DM101 turntable with Mission 774 tonearm. off ebay. Question, not having heard this yet, am I going the right way? and I assume the Rega RB300 will give better than the Mission arm on this TT? Any 2nd hand value in the Mission arm?
Regards, Bri

 

Pm me if you need further assistance on this deck !

As to the mission arm this if in good ick is one fine arm....my book says it ran the ittok close... praise indeed back when linn ruled the roost.

If the 101 is a mk 1.....you can up grade to mk11 status relatively simply again if your intrested pm me!

 

Cheers Z, Pick the package up this afternoon, will PM when I've had a good look. How do I tell ifits Mk 1/11, do I assume the Mk 1 was just labelled Logic DM 101?

Bri.

 

look for a large dia spring round the bearing housing!

 

I spotted that one on eBay - a bargain. The DM101 was a excellent deck and very easy to maintain / set up. The Mission is the original lightweight 774 and is a very good arm indeed, if it is in perfect working order I would be very surprised if it wasn't better than a Rega, if you don't like it they tend to go for 120-150 on eBay IIRC, so it has a good resale value anyway.

Tony.

 

Cheers Tony,
Got the deck and it really is in very nice nick, + paid £210 and picked up from 40 miles away, viewing/pickup allways a better option.
Recall seeing these over 20 years ago, and looks even better now!
The design and build quality must have been years ahead of its time. Sooo, do I keep the Rega RB300 or the Mission arm? Mission is a bit messy to set up, (already on Ebay, but things can change ) Rega being a whole lot more user friendly. I know I should listen but i still welcome experienced advice.

Wife had to work 4 hrs Xmas day so just had a couple of hrs with the new/2nd hand Cyrus CD6, very very nice.
Merry Merry Christmas to all,
Bri.