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Vintage Thorens tables sure are beautiful . . .

I picked up a Thorens TD 160 for $40 at an estate sale Thursday, and it is the first time I have seen a Thorens close up. Every part of the table seems so beautifully designed,and I hope it will sound the same when I finally hook it up after my Christmas move.

Of course I had to do a lot of clean up and adjusting. The dust cover was filthy as well as heavily scratched on the top. I used the Novus scratch compounds on the plexiglas, but I will have to research more about scratch removal. I only eliminated about 15% of the total scratches.

I also had to order a belt from Q Audio and two dustcover hinges from Dave at Vinyl Nirvana. I also had to find two missing set screws on the tonearm pivot, but they were easily found at a hobby store.

I cleaned and oiled the spindle bearing, as it was dry! I tried to place one drop of turbine oil next to the motor shaft, but that may need to be dealt with later.

The RCA connectors were almost totally black, so I had to use a heavy solvent as well as #600 wet sand paper to bring back the silver color.

I set the VTF, the VTA, aligned the Shure V15 III/ VN35HE stylus, and reset the cueing lever. The motor is quiet, the platter spins easily even after shutdown, and the speed select lever works perfectly. I'm feeling pretty lucky right now, and I will consider many of the upgrades later.

I was also fortunate to pick up 25 LPs at the same sale with most of them still sealed. The LPs with the obi are the french reissues by Cadre Rouge. Almost all of the LPs are reissues. There were other unsealed Jazz LPs with some of them original issues, but they were all too scratched for my taste. Judging by the amount of dirt I cleaned off the Thorens dust cover, this person did not take good care of his collection.

I earned this find however, as I did all the searching on my knee on the garage cement floor, for two hours in 20 degree weather, with no heat, and no light(used a flash light). Fortunately, I had on my parka, a stocking cap, a pair of gloves, and I wasn't in Buffalo, New York.














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Topic - Vintage Thorens tables sure are beautiful . . . - alaskahiatt 21:41:12 11/25/14 (21)

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