- Joined
- Jan 15, 2018
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Hello!
Just finished a long term project restoring a Thorens TD 125 MKII I picked up at a local used hifi shop, thought maybe people would like to see. For those unfamiliar, this was the follow up to the famous idler drive TD 124. It's a suspended subchassis belt drive turntable with a Wien bridge oscillator speed controller circuit. It is also essentially the consumer version of the EMT 928 professional turntable.
Here is the turntable right after I bought it. As you can see, it was in pretty good shape! The speed controller was wonky however, the headshell was not compatible, and the suspension was not optimal, but functional.
Here is the inside before I did any work on it.
There is a healthy after market for spare parts, replicas, etc. for the TD 125. I also bought the guts of a nonfunctioning TD 125 to have access to spare parts. Fast forward 2.5 years, here it is after incremental work.
And the inside.
Here's everything I did to it:
- Replaced the speed controller with a rebuilt circuit using contemporary surface mount components (purchased from a gentleman from the UK, saved me a lot of work!)
- Custom armboard for a Sorane TA-1 tonearm and Hana EL MC cartridge
- 5-pin DIN to dual 3-pin XLR phono cable as the tonearm is wired for balanced operation
- Replaced the motor, pulled from the spare TD 125 I purchased
- Replaced the top plate / suspension springs from the spare, which were in much better shape
- New replica suspension adjustment cups and rubber damping washers
- Replaced the front fascia plate with a replica without the cueing lever (no longer needed as the cueing mechanism is now on the Sorane tonearm)
- New custom made walnut plinth
- Cleaned and polished inside and out
That's about it! Sounds pretty darn good.
Next up, I will be building a tube LCR phono stage using D3a and E55L tubes
all transformer coupled and using 49% nickel transformers / LCR inductors from Dave Slagle at Intact Audio.
Just finished a long term project restoring a Thorens TD 125 MKII I picked up at a local used hifi shop, thought maybe people would like to see. For those unfamiliar, this was the follow up to the famous idler drive TD 124. It's a suspended subchassis belt drive turntable with a Wien bridge oscillator speed controller circuit. It is also essentially the consumer version of the EMT 928 professional turntable.
Here is the turntable right after I bought it. As you can see, it was in pretty good shape! The speed controller was wonky however, the headshell was not compatible, and the suspension was not optimal, but functional.
Here is the inside before I did any work on it.
There is a healthy after market for spare parts, replicas, etc. for the TD 125. I also bought the guts of a nonfunctioning TD 125 to have access to spare parts. Fast forward 2.5 years, here it is after incremental work.
And the inside.
Here's everything I did to it:
- Replaced the speed controller with a rebuilt circuit using contemporary surface mount components (purchased from a gentleman from the UK, saved me a lot of work!)
- Custom armboard for a Sorane TA-1 tonearm and Hana EL MC cartridge
- 5-pin DIN to dual 3-pin XLR phono cable as the tonearm is wired for balanced operation
- Replaced the motor, pulled from the spare TD 125 I purchased
- Replaced the top plate / suspension springs from the spare, which were in much better shape
- New replica suspension adjustment cups and rubber damping washers
- Replaced the front fascia plate with a replica without the cueing lever (no longer needed as the cueing mechanism is now on the Sorane tonearm)
- New custom made walnut plinth
- Cleaned and polished inside and out
That's about it! Sounds pretty darn good.
Next up, I will be building a tube LCR phono stage using D3a and E55L tubes
all transformer coupled and using 49% nickel transformers / LCR inductors from Dave Slagle at Intact Audio.
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