upgrade?

I'm thinking of upgrading my thorens td160 with an sme3009 fixed headshell for a mitchell focus one with a hadcock gh 228, but i'm not sure that this is a wise move as i've never heard the focus one.

 

if you have both tt's then the hadcock will sound great on the thorens and the sme will sound good on the focus..

imo ..the thorens hadcock comb should be the better sounding ....consider converting the 160 to a super ...this will yield considerable sonic gains for a modest out lay

 

I fully agree here . Your TD-160 may sound a bit overly warm, thickening detail and a bit congested when things become difficult.. I think it's due to the SME 3009 arm, which I beleive it's a bit woolly-sounding, too much of a good thing on the Thorens. Many love it, so to each his own.

The Hadcock unipivot would add a sense of ease and a more natural feeling of pace to the music.

Bottom -line, I don't think it's a real upgrade. For the money, you can tweak the Thorens no end -and eventually get a better cart?

Regards,

Vincula

 

Thanks guys, i did'nt think it was an upgrade. I'm now going to upgrade my cart before i do anything else. Any ideas? i have an ortofon 2m red at the moment, but thinking of the blue or maybe the at 440.

 

I don't see the Blue as a huge improvement over the Red 2M, just a subtle one. Only the Black would be worth the splash. The AT 440 Mla is a good budget cart, very detailed for the money, but I think it sounds bright at the standard 47k, so unless you can tame the top by loading it down to 32k, I wouldn't recommend it -well, if you only listen to rock, and like that kind of sound...

Actually, I'd look in the other direction. A Grado cart would match the deck/arm well. Buy a Sonata and you won't be thinking of upgrading in a very long time! A Goldring 1042 is another fave of mine.

Here's a site where you can explore and read about different carts. You're able to download sonic samples too:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/daveyw/

Have fun !

Regards,

Vincula

 

Thanks vincula, i've gone for the goldring 1042!

 

let us know how you get on !

 

My pleasure ! Great choice, ovalmarc, you won't regret it!

Take your time to set and align the 1042 properly, which is a bit tricky, as it's especially sensitive to VTA. Do it wrong and high freq's will tend to sound a bit "tilted up". But experimenting is FUN!

Regards and please report about your findings, as zanash pointed out.

Vincula