Hi Satch, you know the best way to avoid problems is to never quit anything. I have at least 1,000 record albums because it would be difficult if not impossible to replace all that music with CDs. However I still enjoy both digital & analog. My albums collect dust but once in a while I love to fire up the turntable & spin them records, it still gives me a thrill as I see you feel the same way.
Back into analog
As you guys might have read, I ditched analog some time ago. I sold my Thorens 125/SME3009 tt and the Rotel RQ970 phono stage and hauled my records to the basement. After a couple of weeks I missed some records, so decided to buy a cheap record player to put in my bedroom system, since the main system doesn't have a phono-pre. So I started looking and found.... a Musical Fidelity X-LPS, which will look lovely with the X-Pre and X-PSU from my main system. So I bought it.
Next up was a turntable, but funds were really tight, although I still had my Ortofon MC-15 SuperII cartridge. Eventually I found a cheap Thorens TD104. Almost everyone who claimed to know anything about vinyl begged me not to buy this, since it was terrible. I bought it.
At first, I was rather dissapointed with the build quality, since it feels flimsy and made out of plastic (which it is). But it didn't sound bad at all, so I decided to keep it. Today I took my soldering iron and a lot of lead, and changed the interlink, stuffed the plinth with lead, cleaned it, oiled it, changed the mat and put it back together again. Holy mother!! Maybe not as detailed as the Thorens 125 I owned, but tighter low end, better image and much more musical. And the Thorens 125 was heavily modified by some rather expensive shop....
Anyway, I'm gradually moving my vinyl back into the livingroom. Next step: if I can get my hands on some mahogany, I might build an entire new tt with the motor/electronics/bearing/arm of the Thorens 104. If that's done, I'll show some pic's, but until then I'm busy enjoying vinyl!!
Next up was a turntable, but funds were really tight, although I still had my Ortofon MC-15 SuperII cartridge. Eventually I found a cheap Thorens TD104. Almost everyone who claimed to know anything about vinyl begged me not to buy this, since it was terrible. I bought it.
At first, I was rather dissapointed with the build quality, since it feels flimsy and made out of plastic (which it is). But it didn't sound bad at all, so I decided to keep it. Today I took my soldering iron and a lot of lead, and changed the interlink, stuffed the plinth with lead, cleaned it, oiled it, changed the mat and put it back together again. Holy mother!! Maybe not as detailed as the Thorens 125 I owned, but tighter low end, better image and much more musical. And the Thorens 125 was heavily modified by some rather expensive shop....
Anyway, I'm gradually moving my vinyl back into the livingroom. Next step: if I can get my hands on some mahogany, I might build an entire new tt with the motor/electronics/bearing/arm of the Thorens 104. If that's done, I'll show some pic's, but until then I'm busy enjoying vinyl!!
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