Need Tonearm help for a Thorens TD124 Mark II

I think you mean a 3009SII arm. My dad had both a TD124 and that arm and I had both restored. There used to be guy named Alfred Kayser that restored vintage SME arms with new knife bearings and wiring. Long story short-I was never happy with the tonearm despite the alleged reconditioning. Low mass arms call for high compliance cartridges as you presumably know since you named some. These cartridges simply can't match the performance of modern low compliance cartridges. The SME arm is crude and clumsy by modern standards. The deck is great. Your challenge-if you want to mate it with a modern arm-is that the platter sits low in the cast iron chassis relative to the tonearm mounting area. Also, there is no room inboard for the junction box that many modern tonearms have (e.g. VPI). If it were me, I would still go with a modern tonearm, probably a Graham Phantom or a modern SME, and have a seasoned pro install it. Now all that said, I sure find it hard to believe that you are the last guy on the planet with an NOS new-in-the-box TD124. You sure? You willing to sell?

Thanks all. Yes the turntable and tonearm really are NOS in the box, I actually have a NOS TD160 in the box too. I found them and accumulated them over the years trying to feed this audiophile addiction. I appreciate the comments. I did consider putting an SME V on the turntable, I had seen a few 124's with that arm. I did at one time buy a Pete Riggle 12 inch tonearm for it which he made for the table along with an armboard for it but I that's still in the box too. I had considered just selling everything and using whatever I got to buy a modern table, I just didn't know if I was missing out on anything with the 124, it's been well regarded for a long time. I do use a Music Hall mmf7 daily and recently purchased a Basis 2500 and an Eminent Techology 2.5 tonearm but I would have to drill into the Basis to mount it and haven't wanted to do that just yet. Any and all other thoughts are so much appreciated!

I had a TD124 with a Rega RB300 arm for 10+ years, I made the arm board out of plexiglass, it was amazing....

michaela, it's time for you to add another forum. Lenco Heaven. 

The website is all about idler drives. Lencos, Garrards, and Thorens.

For those of us who moved from belt drive to idler drive, there's no turning back.

Once signed in, you go to market place, from there you go to traders. Start reading.

A new oversized bearing is mandatory. Sien (moniker sph) is doing a production run right now. Just order it!!!!.

Once the Thorens is in a new, heavy plinth, motor dismantled, cleaned, greased, and reinstalled, new bearing etc. etc. you will wonder how anyone would buy anything else. It is that amazing.

Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. Effort equals reward, and this will be rewarding.

Your 3009/II Improved is a low mass arm and will work best with the Shure V15 VxMR.

I used to mount my TD124/I with 3009/II non improved, and it sounded okay. Later I went through a series of arms and settled on a Schroeder clone.

The 124 comes alive with high mass plinth, preferably mounted on high mass platform. I find that ceramic ball based footers also work better than brass cone footers.