Yet another turntable thread. Thorens this time...

[rprest]

I don't usually buy extra audio kit that I don't really need, but last night at a house call I was offered a Thorens TD 166 Mk6. The price seemed fair and it was from somebody I know and trust.



As I've mentioned before on this forum, I'm clueless when it comes to turntables. How do folks rate this deck? If it's worth spending a bit of time and money on what would be a good cartridge for this?

[reza]

Great deck , well worth spending money on , I think any decent mm cartridge should be fine, down how much you want to spend , whats on it now, might just need a new stylus, is that the original TP 50 arm , cant see in your pic, some replace these altogether with rega rb250 arms but I dont know if thats justified, just make sure you mount it on something solid as its a suspended/sprung deck and arm which are susceptible to floor vibration

[treeboy]

Any other highlights on the 45 front?
There's something very satisfying about cleaning up dirty records. Would be interested to hear anyones tips on getting rid of the smell of years of stale tobacco. I opened up a 45 box the other day, and one particularly smelly 45 had tainted the box....had to put it (the box) in the garden for the weekend, after spraying the inside with Fabreze.....I wrote that out loud didn't I!

[Mondays Child]

I used to use a mix of lukewarm water, grease free shampoo and isopropyl alcohol.
Use about five caps of the alcohol to every 4 litres of water and a couple of good squirts of
shampoo. Don't use washing up liquid though.
Wash using this solution and a very soft muslin cloth and I used to use a soft record
brush to get in the grooves, and then rinse with distilled water.

Got access to a Keith Monks cleaning machine now but to be honest the hand wash with the brush results using that system ain't that
far off the cleaning machine, certainly used to get rid of at least 95% of the ingrained crap on the vinyl.
Don't use that wood/PVA glue technique though whatever you do!!!

Nice turntable by the way. I got rid of an Acoustic Research one last week. They are critical with the floor vibrations and have to on something really solid.
Otherwise they tend to pick up external noises.

[rprest]

Thanks for all the tips. Kids running around the house so the deck is always positioned on a solid table! It does have the original arm and cartridge, and I expect I'll keep the original arm on it. Been suggested a Nagaoka MP-11 cartridge as a good upgrade?

Mostly common stuff on the record front. This probably better in the finds thread, but did include a nice Artwoods 'I Take What I Want', and bizarrely a copy of this

[rprest]

Quick technical question.....

The deck is playing fine at 33, but when you switch to 45 it still plays at 33, despite the changer appearing to switch ok. Do you think it needs a new belt perhaps??

[reza]

Quick technical question.....

The deck is playing fine at 33, but when you switch to 45 it still plays at 33, despite the changer appearing to switch ok. Do you think it needs a new belt perhaps??

Take the platter off and try changing speed so you can see whats happening , there's a sort of metal bracket that sits either side of the belt that should move the belt up or down the drive spindle when changing speed

[rprest]

Hi, yes, it does seems to move up and down moving the belt up and down the spindle

[reza]

It should move it onto the parts of the spindle that are decidedly different in size i.e. 33 / 45 if it doesnt there may be a fault with the bracket postion , if it does there should be some slight change of speed even slight even if the belt is worn

[rprest]

It should move it onto the parts of the spindle that are decidedly different in size i.e. 33 / 45 if it doesnt there may be a fault with the bracket postion , if it does there should be some slight change of speed even slight even if the belt is worn

I think you're right about the bracket position, while its shifting it it doesn't seem to be shifting it far enough up the spindle to put the belt in the 45 position

[Sie Vulture]

I think you're right about the bracket position, while its shifting it it doesn't seem to be shifting it far enough up the spindle to put the belt in the 45 position

Sorry for the late show in this - but that issue is common with Thorens turntables. There are some small screws adjacent to the bracket that adjust the distance the bracket travels. If only I had a itsy bitsy screwdriver, I'd sort mine out.

BTW: I have a Thorens 160 Super, with SME arm and headshell fitted with a Shure cartridge. Lovely thing it is...

[rprest]

Sorry for the late show in this - but that issue is common with Thorens turntables. There are some small screws adjacent to the bracket that adjust the distance the bracket travels. If only I had a itsy bitsy screwdriver, I'd sort mine out.

BTW: I have a Thorens 160 Super, with SME arm and headshell fitted with a Shure cartridge. Lovely thing it is...

Do you mean one of these screws? I've tried adjusting but doesn't seem to make any difference? Hopefully you can see in the pic, this is in the 45 position so not taking the belt up high enough

[Sie Vulture]

Do you mean one of these screws? I've tried adjusting but doesn't seem to make any difference?

I'll be honest and say I don't know. I read about it online someplace.

The next time it needs a service, I'll get mine sorted then.

[Sie Vulture]

A quick play with Google and hey presto!


http://www.verygoodplus.co.uk/showth...th-playing-45s

[rprest]

Ta! I'll have a read through that. The easiest thing to do might just be leave this set up for 45s and use my Project for LPs!