About the Thorens 32x. I had the TP-90 version, which was 320mk2 I believe.
While a decent deck sound-wise, I ran into some tonearm cable problems. After opening the deck, I realized that the tonearm section and general construction is rather sup-bar IMO. The plinth material isn't as sturdy as it seems at first, and the wires, cable wires and unneccessary PCBs just create an unnecessary mess. This is largely due to the TP90 of course, but the same applies to the power/motor section as well.
Possibly the 321 model without the tonearm has a simpler construction, but I don't like designs that are prone to fault and are hard to repair or tweak. Compare this to Rega decks - for example - where even a toddler can swap the tonearm/motor if need to be.
I've toyed with few other Thorens as well, and while this may sound a bit biased, Swiss/German decks are over-engineered (less than Japanese decks tho). In LP12 everything is justified (as well as with the WTL decks), and in Rega's everything is just so simple and functional that you can't go too wrong.
Spinning a vinyl is rather straightforward process, and making it unnecessarily complicated without any real gains sound quality-wise just strikes me as typical commercialized "ooh ahh"-hifi.
Excuse my skepticism, YMMV etc.
I just think that a Rega does so many things well, that without a serious budget, one shouldn't look further. (PS. I don't own any Rega gear, am not associated with them and don't even own a turntable at the moment, in case someone is wondering.)
While a decent deck sound-wise, I ran into some tonearm cable problems. After opening the deck, I realized that the tonearm section and general construction is rather sup-bar IMO. The plinth material isn't as sturdy as it seems at first, and the wires, cable wires and unneccessary PCBs just create an unnecessary mess. This is largely due to the TP90 of course, but the same applies to the power/motor section as well.
Possibly the 321 model without the tonearm has a simpler construction, but I don't like designs that are prone to fault and are hard to repair or tweak. Compare this to Rega decks - for example - where even a toddler can swap the tonearm/motor if need to be.
I've toyed with few other Thorens as well, and while this may sound a bit biased, Swiss/German decks are over-engineered (less than Japanese decks tho). In LP12 everything is justified (as well as with the WTL decks), and in Rega's everything is just so simple and functional that you can't go too wrong.
Spinning a vinyl is rather straightforward process, and making it unnecessarily complicated without any real gains sound quality-wise just strikes me as typical commercialized "ooh ahh"-hifi.
Excuse my skepticism, YMMV etc.
I just think that a Rega does so many things well, that without a serious budget, one shouldn't look further. (PS. I don't own any Rega gear, am not associated with them and don't even own a turntable at the moment, in case someone is wondering.)
