I agree with Cmk. Your table and arm are worthy of at least one cartridge upgrade. Not a really costly one, but something up to maybe $400 or so. Imaging and soundstaging depend on extracting clean HF and LF information from the grooves. The 1012 is pretty limited in that respect.
If your TAD-150 is relatively new it may have an MC input with enough gain for medium output MCs. Check that before deciding what kind of cartridge to buy. Most MCs image and soundstage far better than MMs.
If you're prepared to spend more, I'd go for a better rig. Getting clean HFs from cartridge to preamp before they're swamped by background noise requires a quiet, non-resonant table and arm. The physical limitations of the Thorens are probably your biggest obstacle in that respect, and rewiring won't change that.
I once considered rewiring my old H-K/Rabco ST-8. Kal Rubinson suggested it would be money ill spent, and he was right. I went for a better rig instead and the improvement was beyond my wildest dreams. Of course that broke the piggy bank, but the tunes are sure nice.
If your TAD-150 is relatively new it may have an MC input with enough gain for medium output MCs. Check that before deciding what kind of cartridge to buy. Most MCs image and soundstage far better than MMs.
If you're prepared to spend more, I'd go for a better rig. Getting clean HFs from cartridge to preamp before they're swamped by background noise requires a quiet, non-resonant table and arm. The physical limitations of the Thorens are probably your biggest obstacle in that respect, and rewiring won't change that.
I once considered rewiring my old H-K/Rabco ST-8. Kal Rubinson suggested it would be money ill spent, and he was right. I went for a better rig instead and the improvement was beyond my wildest dreams. Of course that broke the piggy bank, but the tunes are sure nice.