Thorens 124/125/126 vs Rega P3/MMF-5

I would love to know the answer as well. I sold my VPI HW 19 MKII, Premier arm with a Grado green cart & substituted a Thorens 160 with a Grado blue & original arm. I have to say the Thorens can not even come close to the VPI.

I was hoping to downsize but honestly I was so disapointed in the Thorens that I had to turn it off last night, listening to the Grateful Dead Europe '72. Whenever the full band would start to pick up the intensity the Thorens would just start to get congested, at some points it sounded like white noise or static. I tried a Garcia album I also had handy & found the same thing when the music picked up. I was so disapointed I had to turn it off & switch to digital. YUCK!

Needless to say the Thorens is getting sold & replaced ASAP.

Ihcho,

Yes that is one of the threads.... the original is 3000 posts long (or something similarly crazy). Not all Thorens 'tables are idler drives. I am not real up on all of their models (maybe someone else can chime in), but I know the 124 is an idler. Prices for these, along with Garrard 301/401, and Lenco's have pretty much gone through the roof. However, if you do your homework you can still build a phenomenal rig that rivals those costing thousands more. I had a VPI Aries.... Now I have a Garrard 301. That should tell you which I prefer.

Chris

Go for the TD124. Get rid of the original flimsy thorens or sme2000 plinth and buy a proper solid plinth. It will wipe the floor with most decks that cost USD 2k. I replaced my TD124 4 years ago with a PLatine Verdier at 5 times the price. But you have to go to these extrenes to notice a significant improvement over the TD124.

Charlie

OK.
I would take all response as "Thorens 124/125/126 models are not only superior to P3/MMF-5 (which cost under $1000) but can be as good as those new ones costing ~$3000 with some extensions/upgrades."

Hi Chris, the TD-124 is actually a quasi-idler-wheel drive, being an idler driven by a belt. It is immeasurably better than a TD-125 once mounted to a solid plinth, and can indeed duke it out with some very serious belt-drives. The MKI has an iron platter, which is heavier, and I believe sounds better too, as it has more momentum, and I think iron has some very interesting sonic properties (which I believe accounts for the phenomenal detail it extracted when I set mine up with a glass mat), which I will investigate further down the road. If you want further details of problems to overcome and extracting the best from a TD-124 Ihcho, then fire me an e-mail. My Thorens project is posted and viewable by clicking on my "system".