[Vintage-Audio] THORENS AND SME - THE LATEST

[Welsh]

Hi

To all those who assisted me in my refurbishing the Thorens 124 and SME 3009 that I found recently at a hamfest - many thanks. In additon to the practical and useful assistance I received from members, I also found a wealth of information and service sheets for the Thorens and SME on the web. Sharing is the name of the game.

The cartridge is a Shure M75 which I discovered I had in the cupboard - brand new, bought about 20 years ago. Still salivate at the mention of a Shure V15 though.

New plinth, new oil in the motor, refreshed main spindle bearings (cleaned and oiled), silver solder on all audio frequency joints, decent coax to take the signal to the pre-amp. Some Turtle Wax on the body parts - not a scratch in sight. Calibrated the speed using the strobe - careful adjustments to the magnetic clutch. Now 33 and 1/3 rpm exactly.

The turntable and arm are now partnered by my Dynaco PAS2 (with the van Alstine power supply mod - built from a web-based magazine article that I see has recently disappeared!), and the amplifier is a pair of Quad IIs that I rebuilt: gold-plated RCA plugs, switches, etc, superb Groove Tubes KT66s, Mullard EF86s, etc. No new holes and all changes can be 100% reversed back to the old Bulgins, etc. The speakers are a pair of Wharfdale 505s - made in the homeland, not out east as their later cousins now are.

By the way, I have an eastern sourced pair of Wharfdales for my DVD system using a Dynaco ST35 and homebrew prepamplifer built as per AudioNote's M7.). Carol King, Allison Krauss and Dixie Chicks - what a blast.

Sweet music - sometimes very loud - keeps the neighbours in control, or deaf!

Sweet is the sound of Nathan Milstein playing Beethoven's violin concerto on the Thorens.

Goodbye Sony direct-drive.

Thanks for the great site and all the encouragement that one gets: directly and indirectly when one reads about others having as much fun as I am.

Cheers

Jim
Johannesburg