[Vintage-Audio] THORENS AND SME - THE LATEST

[Duane B. Fischer, W8DBF]

Jim, 	
	
Do you mean the 'stylus' or do you mean the actual 'cartridge' that holds the
stylus?

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From: Welsh <Jicaru at icon.co.za>
To: Vintage home and professional audio equipment from 1975 back
<vintage-audio at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [Vintage-Audio] THORENS AND SME - THE LATEST
Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 4:16 PM

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
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