Turntable advice-thorens questions

Best vintage thorens belt drive is the TD125 and for idler td124. Make sure the plinth is high quality, not just one of those silly re-painted stock particle board ones you see here all the time like in those cheapo "bold restoration" thorens ads.

For real rad restoration and modded vintage decks you generally get what you pay for, so cheap is not really the way to go. Also resale value is greatly affected, if you buy one that is done half way right ala "bold" then you will lose your tail on resale value. Find one with a real solid maple plinth or similar with the properly serviced and restored internals and you are set. Dc motors are nice with the td125's, heard one before and it was impressive.

Vintage Linn Lp12 is overrated imo and are tweaky as heck, especially earlier versions. They can sound nice but suspension are a pain to setup and need alot of attention to be anything worth while. Look inside a vintage Lp12 and look inside a vintage Thorens TD150 and they are almost identical. Imo I'd get a restored and replinthed td125 with fixed suspension and call it a day.

Agreed the new Thorens are just marketing and fluff - new company riding an old name, nothing worth buying. But I would take any well done vintage Td125 or Td124 (or LP12) over the blah VPI HW19. VPI's in my experience are showy commercial main stream hi-end over hyped and not one bit musical in the least - waaaayy over rated shoddy built (mostly) tables. Its one of those always well reviewed comm. mfg. seen all over the mags but you know its just for people who dont know any better so they buy mainly based on mag reviews, rec. component lists and press. They kinda remind me of like Def. Tech speakers or the like, always great reviews and shiny mag. ads but in reality don't sound good and much better available out there. ymmv.

Agreed. The EMT 928 which was essentially a highly optimized TD125 with better electronics, a fixed suspension and better motor with slightly different top plate was a legend in turntables.

With mucho modifications a stock TD125 can be converted to elite performance status similar to EMT. If you look at that website in the above post, they seem to recognize this and is exactly what they are up to.

The Classic might be the best sounding VPI ever made and might even be the best honestly built they've made too, especially for the money. But, we were not talking about the Classic which has only been around a short while anyway. Long history of that commercial hifi company making not so well built and very mediocre sounding tables. More power to them for selling so many of these things, after all people are in business to sell and make a profit but again imo and ime VPI are fair to mediocre at best all the way around. For musicality I'd take a restored and plinthed TD125 or restored LP12 over 98% of the tables VPi has ever made, regardless of how heavy the darn platters are. ymmv

Even in the 60's and 70's Thorens were using quality metal platters. The TD125's had balanced metal platters and subplatters which were made from cast zinc alloy + aluminum and the actual top chassis plates were made from super heavy thick cast aluminum. The TD124 idler platters (depending on the era) were made from Zinc alloy, aluminum or cast iron.

http://www.soundfountain.com/amb/td124page.html

http://www.theanalogdept.com/td125_dept.htm

At some point during the 70's Thorens started to get el cheapo with their tables and internal parts starting with the TD160 MkII, MkIII, TD165, 166, TD126's,MkI, ect..... which lead to their ultimate demise. imo

Very very few (if any) VPI's will ever stand the test of time like the famous Thorens TD125, TD124 and LP12. imho

Looks wise, imo a super modded td125 looks way more boss in comparison to a vpi classic. That artisen Maple frame plinth or whatever you call it is waaayyyy nicer than the super cheapo medium desity fiberboard plinth on the Classic. C'mon a cheapo mdf plinth & lame finish on a table that costs that much? Really man?? And those wobbly arms, geesh.

Boss td125

http://www.artisanfidelity.com/Thorens-TD125-Master-Heirloom.html

VPI Classic

http://www.vpiindustries.com/static.php?page=table_classic

VPI makes some cool looking tables, ill give em that, they were one of the first commercial made high end tables that every caught my eye when I first started looking at high end audio gear. Show, sure. But Go, not really... imho

I saw that TD521, it was nice but still uses a factory cheapo pressed board with veneer for the frame. Would rather have this TD125 Long Base with new DC motor and thick real maple plinth.

http://www.artisanfidelity.com/Hardwood-Portfolio.html

Only thing is maybe a dust cover for it, maybe someone knows of an acrylic mfg that woul d make a custom cover of some kind. Guess it would be fine without one though, and might rather see it out in the open anyway.

I understand the 521 was dirt cheap though and would rather have it than a Rega / music hall or whatever. Bet the 521 would still sound really good though, if the electronics inside were ok.