Thorens Thorens - TD309 Turntable w/AT95B Cartridge High Gloss Black

Thorens - TD309
Turntable w/AT95B Cartridge High Gloss Black – as new

 

I bought this TT last year, and played it for ~ 2 -3 days max. I was just about to take the plunge for an exotic cartridge to match, and
decided finally to pursue computer audio (I know- I know).

The cartridge it came with is not bad, but hardly up to the
potential of this TT. Included are all the original accessories boxes &
manuals. I will throw in all my vinyl cleaning accouterments.

It sells for $1900.00 retail,  I will double box & set TT up to factory shipping specs.

3% PayPal to confirmed address please. Buyer pays shipping.

 

This is the commercial blurb – by a dealer:

 

This turntable won the prestigious European Turntable of the Year award
in October 2010, which is saying a lot, since many of the greatest turntables
come from Europe.

 

The turntable uses an EXTERNAL power supply, so only 15 Volts comes
into the chassis. Avoiding the 120Volts coming so close you your phono
cartridge means that hum will not be an issue.

 

The motor is a DC type with SERVO correction, so it constantly monitors
its own speed and corrects if necessary. This motor is VERY quiet.

 

To further reduce any chance that motor noise could get into your
records, the motor is suspended by an accordion “spider spring” like woofer
voice coils have, so any vibration that is produced is turned into vertical
motion.

 

Impregnation of this accordion spring with damping compounds turns this
motion, when damped, into minute “heat” and the vibration is damped out.

 

The torque of the motor is transmitted to the platter by a flat belt,
and the tension on the belt can be adjusted! The entire motor assembly is
placed into a circular “pod” that then rotates in the circular hole in the
chassis, but is mounted OFF CENTER. By rotating the pod, you can set the
tension of the belt as it wears.

 

Don’t think that you need to adjust speed if you adjust the tension…the
ratio of the size of the motor pulley to the platter determines the speed, and
that never changes!

 

The 33 / OFF / 45RPM level is neatly concealed BENEATH the chassis.
It’s easy to find, easy to use, and yet keeps the entire machine “clean looking”.

 

 The three feet on the bottom of
the chassis have a special and sophisticated coil system inside which “floats”
the entire assembly softly so vibrations are dramatically less likely to reach
your stylus.

 

I placed the turntable right near my speakers for my test and I could
not induce any feedback at all.

 

The platter is made of glass, and sits on a precision-machined metal
sub-platter with a nice machined-metal bearing. It’s the old Thorens precision
I grew up with.

 

 As in most quality turntables
today, the mat is made of felt, since the fibers in the felt’s surface get INTO
the grooves on the underside of the record and distribute force evenly and damp
any resonances that occur during playback.

 

The tonearm is a straight tube, and is damped by a small circular metal
ring that is part way down the tube, decoupled by a rubber o-ring. This
prevents vibrations from traveling down the arm tube and coming back again,
delayed in time.

 

Force is set by adjusting the counterweight on the rear of the tonearm,
and a nice little stylus force gauge made by Ortofon is included.

 

The anti-scating, which keeps equal pressure on each side of the
groove, is MAGNETIC, so it has no friction, and no springs to wear and get
loose with age. You set it AFTER setting the stylus force.

 

Place the tonearm BETWEEN the wide lead-out grooves at the end of a
record, and simply adjust the knob until the tonearm, when released, wants to
stay in the same spot, and not skate in or outward. Easy.

 

The pivot point of the tonearm is placed lower down than the tube,
closer to being in-line with the record. This is a small but VERY important
feature.

 

It not only lowers the center of gravity of the arm for greater
stability, but, because of the geometry involved, it enables the arm to move a great
distance up and down when playing a warped record, and the “effective” length
of the arm changes less, so you don’t hear any “wow”.

 

I placed a nut under the edge of a record, and played it, confirming
that the arm can be moving up and down a scary amount and it stays planted in
the groove, while the pitch of the music stayed rock steady.

 

AR did this in the XA turntable in the 1960s, but most tonearm
designers today don’t remember this lesson in geometry that AR engineers knew
back then!

 

A large weight comes with the turntable, and it gets placed in the left
front corner of the base, over the left front adjustment for the foot, and it
counterbalances the weight of the tonearm across the platter so the suspension
has equal suspended weight on each side. Three holes in the top of the chassis
allow for leveling, if needed.

 

This counterweight is NOT a record ‘clamp” or “record weight”. This
Thorens is designed to work perfectly well without a weight on the record, and
is almost impervious to record warp anyway, as we now know.

 

If you ever change out the cartridge for a better one (this tonearm can
serve as a great platform for almost any cartridge) the small screw at the
FRONT of the tonearm can be loosened and the overhang of the cartridge
adjusted.

 

There is also a small screw on top of the pivot assembly at the REAR of
the arm which, when loosened, serves as an adjustment point for AZIUMTH, which
is the TILT of the tonearm, to make it level when viewed from the front.