Thorens TD150 refurb

[rusty bearing]

A long time ago and probably far away in a land that time forgot etc I used to browse the mags and lust after a Pink Triangle or an LP12. Never could afford one with mortgages, family and so on.....

If you wonder " is that relevant?" then read on;

Its been a bit quiet in the work dept and I hate having nothing to do so 'the project' has been quietly moving on. In fact I reached a point where I just had to plug it in and see how it sounds with a bog standard 3009 imp S2 arm and a Shure V15 MK.II
I'd checked the arm over and found the earth had separated from its tag inside the can, other than that it seemed passably OK. Soldered back and tested everything for continuity. Resistance values were all at at between 69-74 milli-ohm, acceptably close.
So having unplugged the trusty Pro-ject.......
A bit more hum than expected led to checking connections, blue wire at the headshell wasn't fitted properly (it's the eyes you know, not what they were).
I'd set the TT springs t'other day so only the arm setup remained. Easy enought to do. Set to track at 1.5g initially. All ready, lets reach for Plainsongs In search Of Amelia Earhart and sit back.....

The immediate difference to the Pro-ject with it's Ortofon 2M is in the more mellow tone, my ears are saying I like this, lets have more! Then the icing on the cake. SWMBO comes in, a confirmed philistine regarding Hi-Fi, and says
"Oooh that sounds really nice"

Joy unbounded, if she can tell the difference it must be good.
I reckon I'm getting I might close to those iconic decks of my youth.








Now I need to build me a small setup rig a la Linn to set everything properly and track down or make some decent TT feet. In time I hope to strip rewire and service the tonearm, remake the armboard as I'm not happy with how it looks. I originally thought it would be better with the arms baseplate as I've set it, now I'm not so sure but its only an aesthetic thing

[Moko]

Wow that looks great. it's funny I think there's going to be real revival in cheap HiFi as there's loads of blokes with more time on their hands than they had previously and want something to keep them busy...I know because I'm another one.

[rusty bearing]

Thanks dave, I must admit to feeling just a little smug. I'm quite enjoying having more time, although Mrs bearing tells me to stop being annoying and "find something to do". Of course then she tracks me down and says " you were too quiet, I thought you were up to something"
Can't win can we

[rusty bearing]

Well, it's been running happily since August and I've thoroughly enjoyed spinning the vinyl and listening with renewed interest, anyway....
Stumbled across an SME 3009 MK 3 'earthing can' (is that right?) for, given what they pay on auction sites, very little money. This as you know has the phono sockets in place so a simple case of unsoldering the old and inserting the new, a job which went very easily in the end.
I haven't rewired the arm yet and now i have my custom made Klotz I/c's plugged in I may not bother. It really is sounding sweet, I played the old Tubular Bells album earlier, quite rich but you can follow every instrument individually and the low notes on the synthesiser (I 'm assuming) just growl away.
After Mrs bearing has watched the football I'm going to spin some more,could be a late night......

[Rare Bird]

'3009 Mk3'!!!

[rusty bearing]

Or possibly Series III

[Rare Bird]

Yes Series 'III' screening can