Turntable advice-thorens questions

Agree with Prcinka and Viridian. You must decide if you want to collect old TTs or a modern TT that will handle modern cartridges and so forth.

I started in vinyl with a rehabed old Thorens. It was nice, but I ultimately wound up with a VPI Classic.

As I've mentioned before in other threads, I had some problems finding a cartridge that worked well with the VPI JMW unstabilized uni-pivot arm. But after some false starts, I settled on the VPI Zephyr. In any case, VPI isn't the only good modern TT. The question you need to answer for yourself is do you want a collectors piece or a modern TT that can handle modern hi-end cartridges.

Good luck.

Best vintage thorens belt drive is the TD125 and for idler td124. Make sure the plinth is high quality, not just one of those silly re-painted stock particle board ones you see here all the time like in those cheapo "bold restoration" thorens ads.

For real rad restoration and modded vintage decks you generally get what you pay for, so cheap is not really the way to go. Also resale value is greatly affected, if you buy one that is done half way right ala "bold" then you will lose your tail on resale value. Find one with a real solid maple plinth or similar with the properly serviced and restored internals and you are set. Dc motors are nice with the td125's, heard one before and it was impressive.

Linn LP-12 is the best Thorens I know; better bearing and platter. A good second hand should be within your price range.

Regards,

You can get a very nice Linn LP12 for that money or a VPI
I upgraded from Thorens to Linn and never looked back. The Linn sounds fuller, richer and more life like. quieter too.

The gentleman who sold me my LP12 upgraded to a VPI at multiples of the Linns price and felt, that while the VPI was better, he was not sure it was worth the much higher cost.

Vintage Linn Lp12 is overrated imo and are tweaky as heck, especially earlier versions. They can sound nice but suspension are a pain to setup and need alot of attention to be anything worth while. Look inside a vintage Lp12 and look inside a vintage Thorens TD150 and they are almost identical. Imo I'd get a restored and replinthed td125 with fixed suspension and call it a day.