Okay all that’s left is to reassemble the plinth, chassis and faceplate. Oh, and yes, fit the mounting plate and the SME 3009 Series 2 improved tonearm. Lots of very knowledgeable people know much more about setting up a tonearm than I do so I don’t plan to cover this. With all due respect to Stevenson and LofgrenB, I prefer Bayerwald tracking for the SME. It just sounds more pleasing to my ear. The other options are equally valid.
Below is the oil damping device attached to the SME. It is by far the cheapest and best aftermarket upgrade available for it. Apart from lowering the arm onto the vinyl in a controlled way - no need for doing it yourself - it dampens any inherent resonance and transforms the arm into something that is very forgiving across a wide range of carts. Simply put it makes a great arm fantastic.
That said, fitting the arm wasn’t as easy as I thought. The sub chassis on the TD160 doesn’t give enough space, the hole isn't big enough or the right profile to adjust the SME 3009 to 213.5 mm from the platter spindle to the pivot point, so I spent an hour grinding some of it away - just enough for the required adjustment. Wish I’d have realised that at the start of the refurb and not the end!
That said I’m pleased with the finished result. To my eye the new look Thorens TD160 is stunning. I love the understated black, wood, chrome colour palate. But what about my ear, how does it sound?
It might be because I’m invested in this deck, but it delivers an expansive soundstage with an ultra-low noise floor that allows the Shure V15 mkIII paired with a Jico SAS Boron styus, housed in a teak mount to pick up subtle nuance and detail that it didn’t when paired with the same SME 3009 on a Linn Sondek. The subtlety seems better suited to, or at least more obvious when playing voice, classical and Jazz. That said the bass goes so deep you feel the waveform rise, sustain and fall as hear the sound. So rock and roll and metal sound pretty good too. I bloody love it!
My favourite cart is a MC Supex 900s (currently on a td124) one of Yoshiaki Sugano's early classics and on this refurbed Thorens TD160 turntable I feel the Shure gives it a run for its money. Obviously it's different, because the sound profile of the Shure is brighter, a little more progressive, there's more delineation (perhaps too much) between the instruments and it doesn't quite have timbre or spacial quality of the MC cart but it's as musical and very pleasing to listen too.
I've listened to many modern MM carts and I wouldn't swap any of them for the Shure/Jico combo. Perhaps this is a style thing as modern carts (in fact a lot of modern equipment) sounds too digital for me, it might pick out the detail but the lack of musicality makes sustained listening a strain. You can take the boy out of the 1970s but you can't take the 1970s out of the boy!
Overall the refurbished deck provides a solid, stable platform that will get the best out of whatever tonearm and cart it's paired with.
Having rescued a TD124 mk1 a few years back, see our audio equipment page, I’d never tamper with it. A timeless classic is a timeless classic for a reason and should be left just as it is, however I’m thinking if an old TD160 in poor condition can be made to sound this good, what will an already solid Linn sound like if it gets the same treatment...
Enjoy your vinyl.
Other blogs in this series.
Refurbishing a Thorens TD160 – An impulse Purchase
Refurbishing a Thorens TD160 – Veneering the Plinth
Refurbishing a Thorens TD160 – Soundproofing the Chassis
Refurbishing a Thorens TD160 – Soundproofing the Platter and Sub-platter
Refurbishing a Thorens TD160 – Repurposing the faceplate