Tonearm/Cartridge combo for Thorens TD 150 MkII

Dougdeacon read my mind: as I was writing you the last info, I was thinking that you could later transfer the arm to your next 'table. Thorens has always made excellent bearings, though, and so you should get some enjoyment out of that rig for a while, anyway. He's right about the RB250, too. The issue is a little more complicated, however, as the RB300's springs actually work in reverse, applying "upforce" and not "downforce", thereby allowing the counterweight to sit closer to the bearing, which lowers the effective mass of the arm and so improves the sound. I always question what seems to be developing into Dogma. It would be interesting to organize some kind of shootout. Sorry, I'm needlessly complicating things. The RB250 is cheaper, and so is in this sense a better match for your 'table, and it may, after all, be better...Welcome to the madness.

Runkster,

I don't know if you're re-checking this thread any more, but just in case, I thought I'd offer you some encouragement with respect to your Thorens: read the "Why can't I hear 20 years of progress?" thread, 8-11-03, in which a man with an old Thorens - tweaked - and cheap MM cartridge can't hear the difference between his old Thorens with original arm and a Rega Planar 25 mounted with a Grado Reference. Before you write this off, he has, like you, quite a decent system. I've believed for a while now that the superiority of modern systems is an assumption which must be questioned. I have a collection of "high-end" record players as well as some humbler ones, and one of the best is an old AR-XA mounted with a Mayware tonearm, which I bought for about $30. Before you replace the tonearm, you should hear it with the aforementioned Shure and tweaks, or simply leap onto the Shure V15, which is highly-regarded by the TAS staff and is quite insensitive to tonearms, one of the best in this regard. Of course, if you already have the Rega, this will allow you to eventually go MC. Have fun.

Hello, I have a TD150mkII I put a Rega RB250 on it and made a armboard out of .375" mdf, you can buy a new RB250 for $200.00 right on Audiogon and it's very easy mount, dill one 23mm hole,Good Luck rkay5

The Thorens TD150mkII is a great table to tweak, on my td150 all underside has cork for better damping ,remove speed selector and changed the motor to one from a TD146 that is a 16V~motor and use a Pro-ject Speed Box that drop's 60Hz to 50Hz to make the motor run more quiet and gave me push button speed control,Rega RB250 arm Rega Super Bias cartridge,Ringmat 330XLR.For a poor worker like me I now have a very Highend turntable that sound great with my Creek 4330R and Creek A43Biamped.Robert