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Old Thorens TD 145 vs. todays gear

I bought my wife a TD 145 back in 1977 as her first real turntable.

Needless to say i've been through a lot of gear since then but she is adamant about never getting rid of anything that still works...and this does...

...but i was wondering if anyone had any real comparison of that vintage table to any of todays comparable tables.. like the music hall series, or the Rega's

I'm thinking about putting a modern cartridge onto it and bringing it back into service. I have a Lukaschek pp-1 I could use...and i'm driving Wilson sophias with a Krell 400xi.

So i guesss three things:

1) how does this TD 145 compare to current $500-1k tables?

2.) What cartridge would be a good match?

3.) Are there any reasonable tweaks that provide a significant improvement without loss of features (this has the auto arm lift mechanism)
objective1

Showing 2 responses by murray88

murray88's avatar
murray88
4 posts
 
Clearaudio Maestro Wood. Yes MM is the only way to go with the old TD145. Still own my TD145MKII since new and never been unhappy. Have had a friend bring by each new Music Hall he's gotten and I couldn't see any reason to change.

I use an ultra cheap Pickering X-15 cart with D400 needle between Maestro Wood repairs/replacements. I have no problem whatsoever hearing beautiful music.

Biggest and only upgrade; New ic and power cable. I do use a Target single shelf wall mount stand and this was probably a good cheap accessory. I also ran across a good deal on some really thick maple cutting boards and I placed that under the TT for a little more mass. Other than that I simply enjoy the music.
murray88's avatar
murray88
4 posts
 
March, 01? Guess I'm slow to the draw. Anyway, my cable changes were kept as simple as possible. Since the table isn't really worth much of anything and my objective was not to upgrade the TT for resale, I simply wired the ic and pc as far back as I could without major disassembly.

I know many won't approve of this method, but again, keeping the value of the table in context, I felt totally fine with taking things as far back as possible without major motor and arm disassembly. Made ic just long enough to connect to the phono pre and the same for the pc, just long enough to reach the conditioner.

Ultimately, the 145 is a garbage table, but when tuned up and running, it can give many higher dollar tables a run for their money. Your already going to spend some money on ic's, pc's and carts, so why not keep it all in perspective and spend a little extra on some well cut vinyl. This is where the real magic is - at least in my system.
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