sound practices reading club /41

Today a generous helping of classic turntable—two models and 2½ articles—all about Thorens. Against all odds, we kick off with the half-article, where the Thorens has to share column inches with several upstarts. It is the tail-end of an article we have covered before, Herb Reichert’s Casual Reactions from sound practices issue 5. We are reading The Thorens TD-124 section on pages 29–30. In it, Herb recounts his personal journey to the TD-124, including humble beginnings and cul-de-sacs. The article ends with a tuning recipe for the ‘124.’

teaser quote: ‘I have always admired the audiophile who had the means and good taste to assemble a perfectly set up turntable/tonearm/cartridge combination. This is where the truly sophisticated music lover shows his character. He can assume the role of connoisseur and art collector […]’

On with the show, in sound practices issue 17, Stefano Pasini had two back-to-back articles on Thorens: The Legacy of Thorens TD-Series Turntables and Thorens Pt.II. Stefano hosts these on his own audio website; warning: you will spend hours there. The first article combines the post-war story of Thorens with that of the two classic models, the ‘124’ and the ‘125’. The second article is about Stefano’s personal collection, setup, maintenance and tweaks.

teaser quote: ‘Wonderfully well-engineered, built so sturdily that they look like they’re armour-plated, heavy, completely reliable and, if the need ever arises, hard-working like real professional decks, the best Thorens turntables are a joy to own and a pleasure to use.’

my take
I like how Herb points out how much things that really matter—‘weight, body and rhythm,’ ‘play records with no sonic forethought’—can be won or lost at the turntable. Being a front-end, once lost it can never be won back in the following chain. I also like the comparison to the connoisseur and the art collector. It certainly looks to me that it takes years of experience to get past the café-racers and to be able to put together a rig that delivers long-term musical satisfaction.

Stefano Pasini is definitely a collector and he freely shares his experience in these articles. I like how the connection is made with both Garrard and EMT turntables, giving us a sense of continuity. Since also the top Thorens players are highly priced, it is good to see some hints about slightly scaled down models, that still may be fun to hunt down.

It is fun to scour the net for all the turntables, tonearms and  cartridges that are named. I could not help noticing that the Dual 1219 has a bit part both in Herb’s and Stefano’s article.

bonus tracks
Did your interest also got piqued by that note at the end of Pt.II about the Telefunken professional turntables? Stefano did get around to that, including some history on these beasts.

Now go and read the articles, see you next week.