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New cables for Thorens TD 160

Hi All,

First post, long time fan. Anyone replaced the
RCA leads for a Thorens TD 160?

I picked up a Thorens TD 160 recently. Literally-
someone was carrying it out to throw away. It had a
Grado XF 1 cartridge and broken RCA jacks. Okay, I had
the needle scoped and it still had 1/3 of its life left,
but I got a replacement anyway. Had a local shop replace
the leads with shielded cables they swore by. So I hooked
it up. The thing put out maybe half the volume of my CD
player. I had to turn it up very high to get decent gain,
and the midrange was pretty sad.

I replaced the Grado with a Pickering XSV 3000 I happened
to have around (!) and got pretty much the same thing
(with more detail and soundstage of course). Not good.

I am thinking the cable replacement is the culprit. The TT
is clean and works in all other respects. Does anyone have
a recommended cable for this purpose? I appear to need one
with low capacitance. TIA!
crema
crema OP
10 posts
 
Thanks. The cartridges were / are hooked up correctly.
I get basically decent sound except it's very weak.
The drop out in the midrange is not as dramatic as the
extremely low volume.

I take it no one has come across this problem before?
crema OP
10 posts
 
BTW, I am thinking I'll bring this (6') to my
shop to be installed instead of the one they put
on that appears to have caused the problem:

http://www.markertek.com/Cables/Audio-Cables/RCA-to-RCA-Cables/TecNec/SC50RR.xhtml

I'll just lop off one side and connect to the TT.

I welcome any thoughts/suggestions on the subject.
I post this link mostly in case someone else has
this problem now or in the future.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
It's difficult to see how cables can be responsible for that much volume loss. I'm not saying you are wrong, it just think it may be something else. I'm not too familiar with your equipment, but if you have any settings on your phono preamp, you may want to try them. One very common mistake is when someone sets the phono preamp for MC when they have a high output MC cart. If that's the case, it needs to be on the MM setting even though its a MC cart.

I think it would be a big help if you tried the 2 carts. that you used with the Thorens and mount them on your other TT that you know is good. If they work OK on that TT, you can eliminate the phono pre altogether. That would really narrow it down to the cables in question.
bondmanp
1,835 posts
 
Not very relevent, but I had my TD-166 MkII rewired with a no-name litz RCA cable. Volume is fine with HOMC cartridge and MM phono stage. The only way cables could cause such a loss in voltage is if they are broken, AFAIK. Bad connectors? Something wrong in the tonearm wiring? Bad soldering job? Does your workshop guy know what he is doing? There are guys on the web that specialize in repair and mods of Thorens 'tables. Prices vary, but that 160 can be a gem when outfitted nicely.
mechans
3,048 posts
 
It strikes me as the antitheses of this membership to recommend perfectly sound Mogami wire when much more costly and eqaually effective wire will accomplish the same thing. The wire should be pure silver of thickert guage and 9 nines pure and single crstal to to the extent possible. It should come in a 5000 year old Mauri wood box polishid by single Indonesian women and limited to only 5 pairs ever to be made. That sound my friends will be exceedingly good.
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