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TD-165 mods


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A while back I bought a Thorens TD -165 that had a couple mods, like a dynamat treatment underneath, already done to it. I added a Rega RB202 tonearm and a Ortofon 2M red cartridge. It's great but I'd like to change the faceplace, tonearm mounting plate and eventually put a Ortofon 2m blue cart on it.  Is the TD -165 worth spending the money on the mods/upgrades or is it too much for this table?

 

Thanks,

 

Phil

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On 04/01/2017 at 3:57 AM, phil1031 said:

A while back I bought a Thorens TD -165 that had a couple mods, like a dynamat treatment underneath, already done to it. I added a Rega RB202 tonearm and a Ortofon 2M red cartridge. It's great but I'd like to change the faceplace, tonearm mounting plate and eventually put a Ortofon 2m blue cart on it.  Is the TD -165 worth spending the money on the mods/upgrades or is it too much for this table?

 

Thanks,

 

Phil

You can go as far as you like with that turntable so don't be concerned there, the limit is the depth of your pocket not the potential of the turntable. The only caveat is that there are 3 versions and ideally you want an i or an ii with the alloy sub platter but an iii with the plastic sub platter is a very competent table as well, the weak point in all three and with a lot of Thorens tables in the TD16x range was the arm. It's plus points are the the 3 point suspended sub chassis and superb main bearing

Also you can just fit the blue stylus to the red body you don't need to change the whole cartridge, the stylus is the only difference between the two.

Armboards are easily available for it in MDF, Aluminum, Stainless steel and Acrylic or you can easily make your own. I'm assuming you already have an aftermarket one on it or did you modify the stock one to fit the Rega? The effective length of the two is different so if you just fitted the Rega arm in the hole for the Thorens one it will all be a bit out (roughly 7mm) and I would expect you would have the cartridge all the way to one end of the headshell to get it aligned correctly?

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3 hours ago, allenh said:

You can go as far as you like with that turntable so don't be concerned there, the limit is the depth of your pocket not the potential of the turntable. The only caveat is that there are 3 versions and ideally you want an i or an ii with the alloy sub platter but an iii with the plastic sub platter is a very competent table as well, the weak point in all three and with a lot of Thorens tables in the TD16x range was the arm. It's plus points are the the 3 point suspended sub chassis and superb main bearing

Also you can just fit the blue stylus to the red body you don't need to change the whole cartridge, the stylus is the only difference between the two.

Armboards are easily available for it in MDF, Aluminum, Stainless steel and Acrylic or you can easily make your own. I'm assuming you already have an aftermarket one on it or did you modify the stock one to fit the Rega? The effective length of the two is different so if you just fitted the Rega arm in the hole for the Thorens one it will all be a bit out (roughly 7mm) and I would expect you would have the cartridge all the way to one end of the headshell to get it aligned correctly?

 

Thanks for the replies in both topics. So, yeah, that's exactly what happened.  Someone put this together for me and they put the rega arm on the thorens board. It didn't completely fit either. I will make sure I get the right one.  A couple more questions if you don't mind.

 

1. I have been using it like this for a while.  Could this have caused any damage to my stylus?

2.  Can I buy an alloy platter to make it like the i or ii?

 

 

Thanks Again,

 

Phil

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22 minutes ago, phil1031 said:

 

Thanks for the replies in both topics. So, yeah, that's exactly what happened.  Someone put this together for me and they put the rega arm on the thorens board. It didn't completely fit either. I will make sure I get the right one.  A couple more questions if you don't mind.

 

1. I have been using it like this for a while.  Could this have caused any damage to my stylus?

2.  Can I buy an alloy platter to make it like the i or ii?

 

 

Thanks Again,

 

Phil

It depends how far out it is but it's more likely to have damaged records than the stylus if it's done any damage at all, you'll soon know when you get it set up right as the songs on the inner grooves will suddenly sound distorted like you have really bad IGD

 

It's not the whole platter, if you take your platter mat off you'll see the platter is in two parts, the outer that lifts off and should be aluminum anyway and the inner that the belt goes round which is either alloy or plastic. I'm not sure if it's a straight swap as the bearing shafts might be different sizes and it's generally not a good idea to mix 2nd hand bearing shafts and sleeves as they could have worn at different rates anyway.

 

The plastic inner is just a means by which you can easily identify a later TD165 but it isn't the only difference, I wouldn't worry about that too much and get the fundamentals right first, just do some google searches for TD160, 165, 166 they are all fundamentally the same and can be made into absolutely stunning performers, and if right in standard form are capable of far better than a lot of mid and entry level tables from the likes of Project etc.

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2 hours ago, allenh said:

It depends how far out it is but it's more likely to have damaged records than the stylus if it's done any damage at all, you'll soon know when you get it set up right as the songs on the inner grooves will suddenly sound distorted like you have really bad IGD

 

It's not the whole platter, if you take your platter mat off you'll see the platter is in two parts, the outer that lifts off and should be aluminum anyway and the inner that the belt goes round which is either alloy or plastic. I'm not sure if it's a straight swap as the bearing shafts might be different sizes and it's generally not a good idea to mix 2nd hand bearing shafts and sleeves as they could have worn at different rates anyway.

 

The plastic inner is just a means by which you can easily identify a later TD165 but it isn't the only difference, I wouldn't worry about that too much and get the fundamentals right first, just do some google searches for TD160, 165, 166 they are all fundamentally the same and can be made into absolutely stunning performers, and if right in standard form are capable of far better than a lot of mid and entry level tables from the likes of Project etc.

 

 

Sounds good. Thank you for the info!!

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