advertisement


Restoring a Thorens TD124 Mk II SME3009 Shure V15 Type III

Aye... a shame its covered up... Like the Sole upgrades people are having done to their LP12s, its all hidden from view!!!

Well there are some clear issues the Brass Platter to sort has but it sounds a lot better than the Iron and Ally platter so its a keeper. Surface noise is nonexistent and the Denon DL103 tracks a whole lot better but the groove wall noise is still there (not surprising considering the size and shape of the diamond in use). Speed stability is a lot more there it takes maybe half a second longer to come up to speed but that's no biggie and it never wavers.

The overall effect is its a much tighter and blacker sounding deck. Much better sense of start/stops, spaciousness and all that tosh as well, but its just... well... snappier... I was expecting a lot from this and I think for what it cost me it delivers about what I paid for it. Not a bargain but about right.

Some Banco de Gaia that used to track badly (Maia: Side 3, Lai Lah) are really very much happier and the needle stays in the groove. No shimmers or crackles around the voice samples with the subterranean bass. HIA as well... just transparent and all around me which I had not had for a long time. The grey patch in my vinyl is over.

The worst thing about it is actually functional: The strobe is not visible from the window at the front -- its set too far back!!! So I'll need a strobe platter and stroboscope to add to my TT toy basket.

Lots to listen to tonight but so far so good. Hopefully balancing it tomorrow will not change it too much (I'm only doing it for my paranoiac self and maybe keep the bearing wear to a minimum).
 
That is a damn cool looking platter! Is the black rubber ring round the edge the way it contacts the top platter, i.e. not via the little pads of the normal platter?

Tony.
 
Yep its sort of clicks-into place so it's quite closely coupled to the platter and is very very snug fitting. Its exactly to the dimensions of the other platter relative to the arm and the well it sits in on the Chassis though. I didn't have to alter VTA which was nice.
 
fox said:
The worst thing about it is actually functional: The strobe is not visible from the window at the front -- its set too far back!!! So I'll need a strobe platter and stroboscope to add to my TT toy basket.
Click to expand...
Don't be silly - if you can't set pitch by ear then clearly it doesn't matter.

You can take the Mana out of the man .....
 
I think I can sort the strobe issue by changing the angle of the mirror. It'll be nice to keep it integrated.
 
Didn't you have to slide the mirror from 50 to 60Hz anyway?

God that thing looks cool. I always wanted one and compared to a NAS Hyperspace or Dias (where I suspect it'll be at when you've finished) it's still a heck of a bargain even after all the extras.......
 
Back from a pile of music -- the floor is awash with LPs... the living room is a mess again.

2634769456_2c62d7aff5_b.jpg



I thought I needed to get the new CNC machined brass platter professionally balanced. That was what everyone told me when I separated the bearing from the cast aluminum platter it originally came with... There is even an often-used picture of a man balancing a Thorens cast platter which is trollied out every time people talk about separating the bearing from the original ally or iron platter and much fear is made if it.

td124plattercentering.jpg


Well...

What was interesting was that after bolting the platter to the bearing and dropping it in place it measured perfectly. Stable on the bubble meter (good to a degree - not good enough) and also the sub platter was at exactly the same height as the old platter bar half a laser dot on my theodolite -- so within mil tolerances (possibly ok -- but don't count on it).

I brought it to a machine balancing company wot balances bearings and equipment for labs and measuring equipment -- and the occasional racing vehicle -- fully expecting my bolt-on job to be well off, the people balancing it said it was actually spot on due to a nice bit of machining... they showed me the bearing mount surface had extra machining with a different feel to the surface which was probably done on a different and more calibrated lathe (all things I had not considered) The whole platter itself was nicely balanced which some castings are not quite so good at... or so I was told...

So, done by hand, I can only hazard a guess the standard of the brass platter surface is as good as the bearing it is mounted to as it needed no alteration whatsoever.

(And with the lid on again... back to listening to music...)

2633949281_3795fcdf3d.jpg
 
Finishing touches now.

I had a chromed heavy counterweight from my older Mørch tonearm but a Gold Tonearm with only the medium and lightweight counterweights for the new onw. The obvious solution was to get the the counterweight gold plated. Done for me for £30 via Johnny7 at AudioOrigami; The finish is absolutely superb. The match with the other weights is OK. Good but not spot on (this I was warned of when pricing a replacement from Mørch that replacement/newer counterweight will never match an older arm as they are personally matched by eye), also as it will spend its entire life at the back end behind a unipivot shaft I think it'll be more than fine. As a chrome weight on a gold arm it looked well odd!

So thanks J7!

2635439115_2309ba299f_b.jpg


2635437099_2baf465239_b.jpg


All that remains now is the Koetsu Urushi retip estimate back from ESco. Still no sign and its been quite a bit more than 7 days for the promised report!
 
j7 did a very nice job on the weight - looks superb, and I may have to drop him a line about gold plating an arm wand if I can ever source a 12" one for my DP6.

Re. ESco, I waited 4 weeks for an estimate, and am now 4 weeks beyond that waiting for the work to be done - I think they must be very busy!
 
Does that Morch have Mayware/Nima bits on the bearing housing? I think we need to be told as noone else used perspex in that area......
 
DSJR said:
Does that Morch have Mayware/Nima bits on the bearing housing? I think we need to be told as noone else used perspex in that area......
Click to expand...

That's nothing new, Mayware used perspex back in the 70s with some variants of the Formula 4!

Tony.
 
I think the Morch UP4 owes a lot conceptually to the Mayware IV but there are enough differences to make it stand on its own. The swappable arm wand arrangement of the Mørch is very different (although apparently identical diameter tubes). The standard Mørch tries to be invisible to the cart by having no headshell with minimal connection to the cart and a specific resonance range of (Blue Red Yellow dot) tubes to suit your cart best. The Nima is even less similar than the Mayware -- they do look superficially similar but the devil is in the details.

If anyone had worries about the wibbly wobblyness of the Aro and trashing an Übercart, the Mørch is slimmer and lighter still and quite possibly even more wibbly wobbly!
 
oooooh!

I also love them in Black.

How does Hank's Soul Station sound on it then?
 
fox said:
How does Hank's Soul Station sound on it then?
Click to expand...

It will be quite a while before I find out as I need to do some restoration first. The 3009 is just resting on the armboard - I need to order some little screws from SME. As it stands the 124 slowly gets up to speed and seems stable and quiet as is, and I've already stripped, cleaned & re-lubed the main bearing (which is in immaculate condition), but I want to replace the motor cap, motor suspension, belt and crack the motor open and re-lube the bearings as you have done before going much further. I've just bought it some Christmas presents from Schopper to do this. It's in lovely unmolested condition, I don't think anything has ever been done to it as all the screws look immaculate. I plan to restore it only for the time being, i.e. just get it as close to factory fresh as I possibly can.

I've also got a MkI too, it's not in as nice condition (say VG+, the MkII is a very strong EX bordering on NM), so I can easily compare the alloy and iron platters which will be interesting.

Tony.
 
Fox - is yours going through an ADC setup of some sort?

Tony - _very_ nice TT. You have an awesome selection of classic tables now... I like the compactness of the Thorens, what is the going rate for a minter?
 
jimb0 said:
Tony - _very_ nice TT. You have an awesome selection of classic tables now... I like the compactness of the Thorens, what is the going rate for a minter?
Click to expand...

I paid £445 for the deck & armboard (the recent German Stereo-Lab plinth came with the MkI). I felt £445 was a damn good price, there's a couple going through eBay now so it will be interesting to see what the market says, though neither looks as good as this one.

I've bought it as an investment as much as as out of curiosity as what little savings I have in the building society are just losing value now (e.g. interest rates lower than inflation / pound tanking against most major currencies). It might be time to buy a nice guitar or bass too... I've always fancied a 4001...

Tony.

PS the alloy platter has two rows of strobe dots, one is obviously 33.3 / 50Hz, what's the other one? Mine seems stable on 33, but I can't seem to get anything on 45 if that's what the other row is meant to be. I haven't found a MkII manual yet and the platter strobe markings are different between the iron and alloy platters (iron has 4 rows).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top