Thorens TD 126 mkii

[plugandplay]

I just recently aquired a Thorens TD 126 mkii. As far as I can tell the only thing missing is the needle. It looks like brand new. I would give it at least 90/100 per cent. I am debating on selling it or keeping it. I did not know that turntables could put out music as clear as a CD. Can someone tell me approximately what one 90 per cent would go for. You guys, after reading in here have gotten me now wanting to just buy a needle and hang on to it as I am a music freak anyhow. It had a ADC XLM MKIII needle in it. It actually is still there, but the needle is not there. All the lights work and the turntable turns without noise. My rich sisters husband gave it to my Mom about 30 years ago when he went to CDs and it has been packed up since then. My Mom gave it to me and I just have been cleaning a little dust off of it as the dust cover protected it pretty well. It is the big version with six square buttons on it. None of the buttons show any wear at all. Any info about what it is worth would be appreciated. I will gladly put up photos as soon as I read how in here, as I am new to the forum. I just joined yesterday. I understand it is a rare tt. I could not find a review in here on it. Thanks in advance.

[Jacques51]

Dear,

Congratulations, I own such a turntable since 1976 or 1977, bought it with my last money when I got out of college...

I still use it as my "everyday" turntable. The only maintenance it ever needed was a new belt and a bit of lubrification. Also had to replace a few bulbs under the push-buttons, I used white 3mm LEDs with a serial resistor.

A replacement stylus (needle) for the ADC XLM MKIII may cost as much as a good new cartridge, but that is up to your taste and preferences.

Enjoy it! If it has the original Thorens TP16 arm, consider that this one is quite good and sometimes underestimated. Mine has an SME 3009 MkIII, I bought an Ortofon MC20 cartridge for it at that time -- not a good idea, this MC expects an arm with higher mass, but the vendor was adamant about it, he probably thought an SME 3009/III was more or less an SME 3009/II. Have since long a Shure V15/III in the arm, I'm still quite happy with it, even if I now prefer the sound of the Ortofon SL15E I have upstairs in the library (don't imagine anything grand, though ).

Cheers!

[goatbreath]

Two Words............Keep it.....

[plugandplay]

It has the original arm on it, even if I don't know all these numbers you guys are spitting out at me right now. I catch on pretty quick. Do I need to buy a MK II or a MK III needle for it? I found each for about $70. to $80.00. What should I replace it with, any suggestions, since I am new at this? I guess this is an expensive turntable as the needle cost almost as much as I paid for any tt in the 70s. I figure setting it up will be a trip for me. The strobe is all I know how to use

[Jacques51]

Dear,

One again, the advice would be: keep it.
I suppose yours looks more or less like this one: .

You can check whether the turntable lights up and turns, then you'll have to fit either a replacement needle or a different cartridge, could be a cheap one just for testing. Alignment and adjustment of a cartridge is not really self-explaining, just get the manuals for the turntable and/or this arm (a TP16) from this website in the Library. Maybe you need to look at the manual for the TD160 for instructions about mounting a cartridge in the TP60 headshell (which goes with the TP16 arm). You'll need the plastic template-like device (as shown on page12 of the TD160 user manual) for mounting a cartridge, maybe it didn't come with the turntable

There is a topic (from 2010) about XLM needle replacements, have you searched the forum?

Good luck!

Jacques

[plugandplay]

Mine looks just like this except the tonearm is different and a few other things.It looks as good as this one.

[Jacques51]

Well, then maybe the arm looks like this one:



Just to be sure, a picture of your treasure would help!

Maybe for starters, I would get a (relatively) cheap replacement needle, LPGear.com has one for 49$ or so. Maybe not the best possible solution, but at least you can start using and testing the turntable without much fiddling. I suppose you have something with a magnetodynamic pick-up input to hook it up to.

[plugandplay]

Yep,
This is the one I have. I cleaned it up yesterday and took pictues of it. I will attempt to put them up today.

[ksoholm]

I did not know that turntables could put out music as clear as a CD.

They can't, not even close. Analogue record playback is a very high-distortion affair, brought about mostly by the needle-record interface. The very best cartridges add about 3-5% distortion to the signal; this cannot be helped. Add this to the tonearm tracking error distortion etc., and you have a high-distortion format.

The question is, rather, why some vinyl still sounds good in spite of the high distortion. And much of it does. But, digital music formats have orders of magnitude lower playback distortion.

[jlbruyelle]

Analogue record playback is a very high-distortion affair, brought about mostly by the needle-record interface. The very best cartridges add about 3-5% distortion to the signal; this cannot be helped.

According to my own measurements, you can divide your figures by 5 at least to be in the right ballpark Then pivot arms do add distortion, but its amount depends on many factors (length of the arm, shape of the stylus) and linear tracking virtually eliminates it. Still more distortion than CD, but definitely not 3%, at least not with decent, properly adjusted equipment.

The question is, rather, why some vinyl still sounds good in spite of the high distortion. And much of it does. But, digital music formats have orders of magnitude lower playback distortion.

There is not only THD, there are also the mastering issues. Looking at how some (well, many) CD's are abused to sound louder is very informative on why they can sound worse than properly mastered vinyl. Someone said somewhere (it might even be here) that while comparing several generations of the same album he had discovered that the multiband compression had been progressively made more and more aggressive, in the obvious purpose of winning the loudness war. Strangely, now that vinyl is regarded as an "audiophile" format it seems to receive more care than when it was a mass-market industry, whereas CD is following the opposite road. It is not very difficult to eventually be better in these conditions

[goodguy309]

I am in the market for this exact turntable. Can you please contact me with a picture(s) and a price.

Thanks!