New cables for Thorens TD 160

I think Mechans may be right but I have 1 question first. Are we talking about just low volume? A phono preamp does 2 things. It boosts the signal from the cart. and it runs it through an EQ curve. I know you say the midrange is not right and your solution is to possibly change the cables. If you don't have a phono preamp, it should sound really messed up. Your first instinct would probably be that something is broken, as opposed to cables. Also, 1/2 the gain of your CD player is a lot of gain for no phono stage. I haven't heard every piece of gear out there, so I could be wrong. If you are hearing music that is not too badly distorted, you probably have a phono preamp in the system. I'm not familiar with your TT, but I know some TT's have a built in phono stage. Quite often people don't realize that and it causes various problems.

If not any of the above and the music is very distorted, Mechans is right. you need to get a phono preamp. You can get a pretty decent starter one for around $100.

It's difficult to see how cables can be responsible for that much volume loss. I'm not saying you are wrong, it just think it may be something else. I'm not too familiar with your equipment, but if you have any settings on your phono preamp, you may want to try them. One very common mistake is when someone sets the phono preamp for MC when they have a high output MC cart. If that's the case, it needs to be on the MM setting even though its a MC cart.

I think it would be a big help if you tried the 2 carts. that you used with the Thorens and mount them on your other TT that you know is good. If they work OK on that TT, you can eliminate the phono pre altogether. That would really narrow it down to the cables in question.

If there's no switch its almost certainly a MM phono pre. What's the voltage output of your cart.? Post back with that before you start rewiring anything. If its too low, that could be the issue.

4.7 should be OK. The only other thing you can try is to mount that cart on your other TT. If it works OK on that arm, that will confirm something is wrong with the wiring on the Thorens.

I should have said in my last post that, at this point, I think its going to be the cable issue. No gaurantee's, of course, but if its a lot of work for you to try mounting the cart on the other TT just to test it, I don't think you'll be taking too big a chance. But don't let me talk you out of it if you want to try the other TT first.

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

Just to be clear, I didn't think the cartridges are bad, but just didn't have enough gain to work well with your pre. It is possible that they both put out about the same amount of voltage. If that's the case then you would have the same problem with either one. That said, I think its more likely to be a cable problem at this point. I would check that first.