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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
 
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.
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,695 posts
 
The new cables may not be installed correctly (this would make the cartridge leads off as well).
crema OP
10 posts
 
According to Vinylengine.com, the Pickering VSX/3000
has an output of 4.7 mV. Is that too low?

I do have another preamp around (an Adcom) but it
sure doesn't sound as nice as the Dynaco PAS-3 series ii.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
4.7 should be OK. The only other thing you can try is to mount that cart on your other TT. If it works OK on that arm, that will confirm something is wrong with the wiring on the Thorens.
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