Thinking about getting a TD125 any advice?

[Jac Hawk]

I bought a TD160 last year and have enjoyed working on it to a point where now it is in my opinion almost as good as new, sonically it's not as clinical as my other deck but it gets your foot tapping and brings a certain je ne sais quoi to the music. At the moment i'm bored senseless and need another little project to be getting on with, so i've decided to get another old deck to update and upgrade and i've been thinking about a TD125.

i know very little about these decks other than they succeeded the TD124 and they don't seem overly popular, i guess when they came out the Linn LP12 was the obvious choice and from what i've seen considerably cheaper than the TD125 at that time, anyway any useful bits of advice, things to improve, look for, avoid etc. would be very helpful.

[walpurgis]

Looks nice, but all it offers over a TD160 really is complexity and sometimes unreliable electronics.

Spend half as much on an unmolested TD150 instead and relax with some seriously decent sounds. They sound even better than the TD160 in my opinion.

[hifi_dave]

TD 124 is the best out of that list by quite a margin.

[walpurgis]

Not cheap though. Nor are parts.

[Jac Hawk]

TD 124 is the best out of that list by quite a margin.

Which is strange coz the 125 outperforms the 124 on paper in every aspect

[WullieD20]

Hi fi shows (Heathrow and others) in the very early seventies used virtually nothing but the 125 / SME. These looked wonderful and performed perfectly. Looked even better if fitted in the SME plinth of the day.....I don't remember LP12s being in evidence at the time at all. There were a number of different TTs on the market at the time, but the 125 was invariably the 'weapon of choice'.

Despite being unfamiliar with the technicalities, the combination of 125 / SME / SME was very aspirational.

[oldius]

Brilliant decks and, imo, better than the 124 which is also a really good deck.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Jac Hawk]

Like i said i'm looking for a little project and the TD125 looked like a candidate, i was thinking of getting rid of the 70's chipboard plinth for something a bit more substantial, sorting out the old motor control board and either replacing worn out caps and resistors or dropping in a brand new board, damping the floating top plate with cork, maybe have the top plate re painted and finally replace the old springs. looking at photos of the internals from the underside it looks like it has a transformer in there to drop the voltage and i'm wondering if housing that and it's associated circuit board in it own external metal case will bring any benefits, as i've said any advice is most welcome.

[Beobloke]

Spend half as much on an unmolested TD150 instead and relax with some seriously decent sounds. They sound even better than the TD160 in my opinion.

^^^This^^^

I’ve owned two TD125s and was spectacularly underwhelmed by both. In fact, I bought the second, minty one as I assumed that the reason the first one was so dreary was that it was completely knackered when it arrived with me and needed some serious repairs to get it going again.

It wasn’t...

[struth]

yeah a nice 150 is a great deck. not a lot of difference to the 160 looks wise tho.

[eldarvanyar]

I have seen this one on eBay that might be a good project for you

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thorens-TD-125-MK2/254874377153?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.S EED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3Db1f65 955be5948f48c849f3797197f33%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D 1%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dnone%26sd%3D254874377153%26 itm%3D254874377153%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380 057%26brand%3DThorens&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Add380fa0-74a0-11eb-b4c3-8a26d49cc932%7Cparentrq%3Ac708d9711770aada594d157b ffeb9832%7Ciid%3A1

I have no connection with the seller

[Jac Hawk]

I have seen this one on eBay that might be a good project for you

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Thorens-TD-125-MK2/254874377153?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.S EED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3Db1f65 955be5948f48c849f3797197f33%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D 1%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dnone%26sd%3D254874377153%26 itm%3D254874377153%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380 057%26brand%3DThorens&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Add380fa0-74a0-11eb-b4c3-8a26d49cc932%7Cparentrq%3Ac708d9711770aada594d157b ffeb9832%7Ciid%3A1

I have no connection with the seller


Yes i've seen that one, i'd prefer one without the arm lift control but if i could get that for the right price i wouldn't grumble.

[Jac Hawk]

decided i'll do another TD160 as the cost of even a poor TD125 is a bit silly