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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
bondmanp
1,831 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.
crema OP
10 posts
 
Bondmanp, your comments seem very relevant to me.

Zd542, I did look for a MM/MC switch, but will look
again- it might be inside.
crema OP
10 posts
 
BTW, anyone ever rewire a Thorens tonearm? Is it difficult?
That could be the problem...

There's no MM/MC switch.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
If there's no switch its almost certainly a MM phono pre. What's the voltage output of your cart.? Post back with that before you start rewiring anything. If its too low, that could be the issue.
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