Thorens TD146/160 with Ortofon 309 arm?

>>Maybe the arm is too much for the (cheap) turntable?

I agree, the Ortofon 309 is probably too much arm for that either of the decks you mentioned. I would look at a Thorens TD-124 (my personal preference), TD-121 (a budget 124) or maybe a TD-125 or TD-126 (not the Mk III).

The Garrard 301 or 401 would also be a great match. If you are on a budget and can ignore the fact that they are DD units, the Luxman PD-121 or any 3xx or 4xx decks sound excellent and can compete with much more expensive TTs. I have used a PD-441 with several Ortofon tonearms and found it to be a good combination.

I'm in the process of slowly modifying my Thorens TD145 and I want to change out the stock tonearm prior to upgrading to a Miyajima Premium BE Mono cartridge. The obvious choice would be to consider a lightweight SME, possibly the entry level magnesium SME but honestly, I haven't yet looked into that much. My local audio guy showed me one of his Clearaudio tables and mentioned that I could put that entry level Clearaudio tonearm on my Thorens but that I would need to either set it on a wall mount or as I was thinking, suspend it from the ceiling. The notion that I have at this point is to move in the direction of a lighter weight tonearm than what is on there now. This may or may not be of use to the question that you pose however, I wouldn't mind piggy backing on your thread as I need to learn about this same general topic.

Thanks Br3098.
I guess the long arm may not fit to the table anyway without heavy modification, and it surely looks like no match.

My Thorens table is 145 MKii, not 146.
Goofyfoot, I would not mind if this thread got piggy backed or even hijacked.
I am also thinking of changing the stock tonearm from TD145, so I would like to hear more about it.

I may go with a Clearaudio Verify carbon tonearm after all. I'm starting to believe that with the right isolation feet, a 1 & 3/4 inch wide custom hard maple plinth and a sturdy wall mount, that I can make his TD145 upgrade worth the effort. Ihcho, the carbon verify retails for a $1,000.00 but I'm hoping for at least a 25% discount.