I swapped main bearings earlier today, partly out of curiosity, partly to see if I wanted to sell the Schopper (a decision I still haven’t made).
Somewhere way up towards the start of the thread I highlighted that my original bearing shaft had some really bizarre pitting. I couldn’t explain it, and I’m still baffled. I replaced it with the crazy expensive Schopper, which doesn’t seem to be available anymore. Then about 4-5 years ago I saw an original Thorens spindle for sale from one of those eBay sellers who asset-strips 124s, so I bought it just to have it. I cleaned it up, rebuilt the original bearing and just put it away in my parts stash as a spare. I finally got around to fitting it today.The only annoying thing is it is a very slightly different height, just sufficiently taller than the Schopper I had to adjust the top-platter clutch. Probably <0.5mm, so no huge issue. I suspect it will be down to a slightly different plastic thrust pad rather than actual engineering tolerance. I can’t vouch for the provenance of the one in my original bearing (though it does look original).
I’m still getting to grips with what the sonic differences are, but they are pretty subtle. Certainly far more subtle than say a Cirkus vs. pre-Cirkus in a Linn, but I think it breaks down vaguely similar lines; the Schopper being a bit more ‘Cirkus-like’, brighter, crisper and weightier, the original Thorens a bit more mid-centric and easy going. In my system, which is on the warm and weighty side anyway, I think I’m preferring the original. Just. The problem is, just like the pre-Cirkus/Cirkus evaluations I went through with my old Linn decades ago, it takes such a long time to swap them over any evaluation has to be made as a long term gut feel rather than a conventional A/B. The Thorens is way easier to work on than a Linn when it comes to swapoung a bearing, but even so it is still longer than I’m prepared to commit to on simple audio memory. I’d argue long-term is a far better way of evaluating kit anyway. I usually find fast dealer dems etc an absolute disaster as ones instinct is to pick the most impressive, which most often fails to connect/satisfy long-term. I like to see if I’m still enjoying listening and discovering new music in a month or so.
FWIW I’m not hearing any plus or minus with regard to rumble, I’m sure that which is still present in my system is down to the idler, and that is greatly improved since the MG Chemicals Rubber Renew I linked to a page or two back. Must have played about five or six albums so far and the deck as a whole really is sounding good. Currently on Ulrich Schnauss
Far Away Trains Passing By, which always sounds stunning. This deck really is sounding as good as it looks now. I have a feeling this bearing will be in for a long while now, maybe forever.