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Classic Thorens TD 135 mk i

Rosewind

Rosewind

Lost in Translation
Yesterday I thought I had landed a Jobo Acoustical 2800, but no.

Now I am looking into getting a nicely working Thorens TD 135 mk i as my second turtable. I will place it in a panzerholz plinth eventually, at which time I will also rotate it 90 degrees to the left to be able to use a second arm on it. The second arm will be separate from the metal body.

If it is fairly rumble-free, I will use it as is for now. I will of course check that the oiled parts move smoothly.

When I get the panzerholz in the house, I will see if the Thorens 135 needs to have parts renewed. The BTS-12s tonearm will also be "upgraded" with an anti-skate kit.
 
Excellent, look forward to some pictures!

I’d certainly strip the E50 motor down fully before putting any serious miles on it, it will be very dry and sticky in there if its not been previously serviced fairly recently. The oil dries to almost a varnish and needs properly removing to reopen the pores in the sintered bronze bushings.

Aesthetically I think I’d keep it in its normal orientation and mount the extra arm behind, i.e. end up with a fairly square plinth. That’s how I’d do it with a 124 anyway.
 
i13dMN


I sold 135 to upgrade to a 124, don’t know if it was expectation bias, or what but the 124’s collecting dust …


https://flic.kr/p/i13dMN

Made a nice little deck from IKEA beech worktop savers.
 
Oh well. That can happen, ddd. I willl use panzerholz. Nice finish on yours!
I have also looked at a cheap and cheery Thorens 110 (scaled back 126 mk iii) and a B&O Beogram 4002 - an entirely different tt, I know. They are 700 Pounds here and may be wall-mounted vertically (which I just learnt).
However, I hope that the Thorens 135 arrives next week. Then I will take photos. I have no phono stage in the house at the moment, so can't play records.
 
Thank you so much for pointing this out.

Actually, I have a Terratec device with USB out that could be used with my Decca carts. I could also force the return of my Leak Stereo 70 from my youngest daughter's room.

Hmmm.
 
Here are a few (not very focused) snapshots taken by the owner. It looks relatively good. The mech has been oiled, the idler wheel was replaced and it has a new belt from Hanze. But now I will need a blue belt thingy ...

By the way, that tonearm looks like it was used as a basis for the one on the new Thorens TD 403 DD and TD 1500 ...
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Oh. And I bought an inexpensive Thorens TD 110 as a present for my wife. It has the same motor as as a TD 126. SORRY. It will need to be cleaned up and "dressed up" for use in the livingroom.
 
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Looks really nice. It’s a blurry photo, but I think the rivets on the bearing housings on the E50 have been drilled out and replaced with machine screws suggesting the motor has been fully stripped and serviced at some point. I’d see what unloaded (no belt) spin-down time looks like, that will give clues how free-running the motor is. I’d want to get a three-core earthed mains lead on there pretty fast. In the UK at least that two core stuff is not legal or considered safe. Grounding the chassis has real advantages.

Assuming the arm is in good condition with bearings working exactly as they should I’d expect it to be very competent. I don’t know the effective mass, so not sure exactly what cart I’d stick in it, but I bet it is up to tracking a pretty decent one of the ideal compliance. You may well find it is all the arm you need.
 
Rosewind said:
Oh. And I bought an inexpensive Thorens TD 110 as a present for my wife. It has the same motor as as a TD 125. It will need to be cleaned up and "dressed up" for use in the livingroom.
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Oh does it? I wish I'd realised that during my 5 year search for a replacement TD125 motor!
 
I will see when it gets here. The seller has just moved house so is a bit tied up.

I will relocate it in a two tiered plinth as suggested by Helen Bach aka Cat's Squirrel in another thread on PFM.
 
Seanm said:
Oh does it? I wish I'd realised that during my 5 year search for a replacement TD125 motor!
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That is very useful information to know if true! TD-110s don’t go for that much and I don’t think there would be many mourners if you killed one to save a TD-125. I remember a friend’s family having one back in the ‘70s or early ‘80s and it was a pretty cost-cut flimsy thing. I liked the styling, especially the platter strobe, but the actual chassis plastic and thin pressed steel pretty much Dual 505 level as I recall.
 
@Seanm: So awfully Sorry. The motor unit is the same as the TD 126 mk iii. Sorry for getting your hopes up!

The 125 motor should be serviceable?

I have amended the wrong info in the previous post.

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Rosewind said:
@Seanm: So awfully Sorry. The motor unit is the same as the TD 126 mk iii. Sorry for getting your hopes up!

The 125 motor should be serviceable?

I have amended the wrong info in the previous post.

KfsnvcC.jpg
Click to expand...
Haha, no worries: as it happens I recently managed to get hold of a not-too-expensive 125 and swapped motors, so I'm sorted.

This is still good news for 126mkIII owners: as I understand it the motor on that model was unreliable and unfixable, so it's good that cheaper models shared them.
 
Tony L said:
I remember a friend’s family having one back in the ‘70s or early ‘80s and it was a pretty cost-cut flimsy thing. I liked the styling, especially the platter strobe, but the actual chassis plastic and thin pressed steel pretty much Dual 505 level as I recall.
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You may be remembering TD104/TD105, Tony. Although TD110/TD115 also shared a number of Dual-like physical characteristics, these are better thought of as Thorens having taken the stamped steel plate suspended chassis atop framed plastic tray to the ultimate conclusion. Leaving the electronics aside, two things that really distinguished these dearer models are the motor being taken off the sub-chassis, combined with novel chassis springs made from round spring steel plates with concentric spiral cuts within. Lateral stability was excellent without the Dual's creakiness or binding on the rubber grommets. Combine these features with all four models sharing the same 72-pole DC motor (compared to the then 4 and 6-pole Dual AC motors hanging off the chassis) and these actually sounded quite decent.
 
That’s exactly how I remember them, a lot of thin resonant plastic on show. I remember the one from all those years ago being very microphonic when you tapped the plinth, closed the lid etc. The styling is really cool though, very late-70s/early-80s.
 
I'll knock on wood that it's not all plastic ... Oh, and there's no lid. Slight oversight. I'll have to buy another one and sell the motor unit to someone with a TD 126 mk iii.

I can pick one up when we next go to Germany. They go for little money and the upside is that I will then have two interchangeable tonearm wands.
 
Bought a Thorens 115 for peanuts. Will give me an extra tonearm wand and a full dust cover with intact back panel.
 
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