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RE: that reminds me of........

Posted by user510 on August 23, 2015 at 13:33:09

In Reply to: Mount and set up cart posted by Kindablue on August 23, 2015 at 08:54:05:

.....way back when I bought my Thorens TD160 new from a local dealer.
Portland, Or. 1975. Of Sandy Blvd east side kinda close in. The owner was an acquaintance, friend of a friend that knew my family, etc. the name of the store, I can't remember. But I had asked him if he could get the Thorens for me. He did and I came down to pick it up.

The store policy was to include cartridge installation with every turntable purchase. But I wasn't buying a new cartridge to go with since I had a couple of Shures ready to go on it when I got the thing home. But they didn't quite yet know this.

As I walked in I spotted the store owner as he was in the middle of placing a 'no name' changer up on a display rack. He looked up at me, fumbled and the record player did a full forward summersault to the floor. (Layout) From just above chest height on the rack to the tile floor. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd have given that dive a solid 6. A fairly clean drop. Only touched the rack once on its way down. Nice vertical position at point of contact with floor. If it had had toes, they'd have been pointed. It's not like I was trying to spook him, but the drop did manage to wreck that changer quite effectively. Bent tonearm and cracked plastic parts here and there. Wow. Death.

Right after that another sales guy asked me if I wanted the store to install the cartridge for me. I replied that I was comfortable intalling that myself,.... and that I had a choice of cartridges back home. No bother. ahem.

I paid my $220 for the Td160, still sealed up in its ship carton, and carried it out the door.

Ah, now I remember. The store name was "Westmans". It wasn't there for more than a couple of years. The kind of place that was trying to move mid-fi japanese gear at discount prices. This must have been close to the end of that era. I don't know what eventually that store owner moved on to, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't hi-fi gear.

Anyway, the message is that it was fairly common to expect free cartridge setup/alignment with the purchase of a new record player. I'm not so sure if purchase of a cartridge (only) would get the same service. But that has never been an issue for me. I always prefer to take responsibility for every aspect of my own turntable setup. The only way I can 'know' it was done the way it should be. Or if not, no one to blame but my self.

end of miserable anecdote.

-Steve

Edits: 08/23/15 08/23/15

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