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New cables for Thorens TD 160

Hi All,

First post, long time fan. Anyone replaced the
RCA leads for a Thorens TD 160?

I picked up a Thorens TD 160 recently. Literally-
someone was carrying it out to throw away. It had a
Grado XF 1 cartridge and broken RCA jacks. Okay, I had
the needle scoped and it still had 1/3 of its life left,
but I got a replacement anyway. Had a local shop replace
the leads with shielded cables they swore by. So I hooked
it up. The thing put out maybe half the volume of my CD
player. I had to turn it up very high to get decent gain,
and the midrange was pretty sad.

I replaced the Grado with a Pickering XSV 3000 I happened
to have around (!) and got pretty much the same thing
(with more detail and soundstage of course). Not good.

I am thinking the cable replacement is the culprit. The TT
is clean and works in all other respects. Does anyone have
a recommended cable for this purpose? I appear to need one
with low capacitance. TIA!
crema

Showing 10 responses by crema

crema OP
10 posts
 
It appears I didn't give enough information.
I am not new to turntables. I'm hooking this to
a Dynaco PAS-3 Series ii tube preamp with a wonderful
phono stage. When I hook up my old Dual 502 (Shure
cartridge) it sounds fine ... if not as nuanced as
a Thorens/Pickering would...

So back to the cables. Anyone have experience replacing
Thorens output lines?

Thanks so far, folks.
crema OP
10 posts
 
Thanks. The cartridges were / are hooked up correctly.
I get basically decent sound except it's very weak.
The drop out in the midrange is not as dramatic as the
extremely low volume.

I take it no one has come across this problem before?
crema OP
10 posts
 
BTW, I am thinking I'll bring this (6') to my
shop to be installed instead of the one they put
on that appears to have caused the problem:

http://www.markertek.com/Cables/Audio-Cables/RCA-to-RCA-Cables/TecNec/SC50RR.xhtml

I'll just lop off one side and connect to the TT.

I welcome any thoughts/suggestions on the subject.
I post this link mostly in case someone else has
this problem now or in the future.
crema OP
10 posts
 
Bondmanp, your comments seem very relevant to me.

Zd542, I did look for a MM/MC switch, but will look
again- it might be inside.
crema OP
10 posts
 
BTW, anyone ever rewire a Thorens tonearm? Is it difficult?
That could be the problem...

There's no MM/MC switch.
crema OP
10 posts
 
According to Vinylengine.com, the Pickering VSX/3000
has an output of 4.7 mV. Is that too low?

I do have another preamp around (an Adcom) but it
sure doesn't sound as nice as the Dynaco PAS-3 series ii.
crema OP
10 posts
 
I find mounting cartridges difficult- I have big fingers
and those are some very small screws.

The odds are slim that both cartridges are bad in
the same way, right?

There are two possible culprits if it's not the cartridge: the new RCA output cables the shop installed
and the cables in the tone arm (the ones that attach to
the cartridge).

My shop is open a big 3 hours a week. I think I might
skip this week, order new cables, and see what happens
when they install them next week. One could argue that I
should find a new shop, but they are hard to come by
these days.

Thoughts?
crema OP
10 posts
 
Al, sounds like a good idea, if I had multimeter.
Suppose I should own one. The shop suggests,
"I don’t think the problem is the cables we put in. It’s possible the tonearm wires are bad but also unlikely.

Turntables have weird, subtle problems because the signal level is very low to begin with but I have gotten very good at sorting them out. "

Remember, I have no idea of the history of this table.
But it sure did look clean, except for those cables, which
were original, though broken.
crema OP
10 posts
 
An interesting thought- that the ground and signal
might be reversed. I just tried reversing the connection
on one channel and no change.

I wonder has anyone seen a signal drop from such a
reversal before? You'd think if the theory were sound
(if you will), reversing the +/- would always lead
(again if you will) to a signal gain or drop.

Anyway, back to the shop.
crema OP
10 posts
 
I did try switching the connections to the cartridge
every which way. No dice. So it's back in the shop.
We will see. He did note that it's an original Pickering
cartridge, but I knew that...

Hoping for some good news next weekend. Will report.
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