Best Tonearm for Thorens TD-124.


I wonder what tonearm Art Dudley prefers to use with his TD-124. Mine is to be mounted on a solid plinth, with or without rubber mushrooms, I don't know yet. I'm thinking Ortofon 2M Black or Clearaudio Maestro cartridge. Anyone out there in Audioland with any suggestions? Thanks, GK
gregkraus

hello hello : I refurbished an old dusty td124, removed the "original" ESL tonearm and replaced it with a carbon fiber ADC. runs great, plays great. My question: I would like to set up The old ESL with a second cart. maybe mono, but I cannot find specs, or user info for the ESL. Weird antiquated/antiskate adjustment I cannot figure out. What cartridges would be appropriate for this tonearm?

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I tried various vintage SME arms, a VPI arm (quite the rarity on a TD124) and then tried my first Reed 3P. Wow!

As mentioned above, you can put just about any arm on a TD124 if you can find a way to mount it without fear of a mismatch. It just boils down to the quality of the arm. 

All of this assumes the TD124 at hand has been optimally updated. 

Reed makes terrific arms, so it is not surprising that it worked well with the TD 124.  Great table + great arm = sonic bliss.  I sort of dislike the notion that a vintage table should be matched to vintage arms; a table as good as the TD 124 deserves a good arm, including really good modern arms.  

Replacement, new rubber mushrooms would probably be the way to go.  My local dealer reconditions and sells a lot of these tables and new mushrooms are one of the basic steps in reconditioning tables.  The person who use to be the dealer's turntable repair/reconditioning/setup person (until recently), most often installs Ortofon and Koetsu cartridges.  He does not like the Black models of Ortofon as much as some lower-priced models because, to his young ears, they sound a bit bright and thinner than the other models.  I haven't heard the comparison myself.

You use the tonearm that works for you, its not a matter of looks table already looks good but you want it to sound right. I use a Audionote Arm3 V2 with Ortofon Quintet Bronze