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My first Thorens!

cosmoline

cosmoline

Member
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I bought this yesterday from my local CL. A TD 160 with what I believe to be a stock TP16 tone arm, and a Signet 7Ea cartridge. It has a hum coming from the RCA end of the cable and the lift arm is missing from the head shell. Other than that its super clean and plays. I'm looking forward to upgrading what I can and modifying where appropriate. Any suggestions are welcome. This is my first Thorens and I'm really excited about it.
 
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Pick up a RCA video cable and replace the old RCAs cord and all. They are famous for wearing and causing hum.

The headshells go for about $85 or so now, so hang on to the one you have, even if you use it as an alternate....probably worth $50 without the finger lift.
 
Congrats. I've owned a TD 160 since '83 and it's still my main tt. Very solid. Grab an extra headshell if you have the chance-it's nice to have a backup and it makes a/b cart comparisons a breeze.
 
Nice! I worked on one just the other day and the RCA plugs were also bad but were an easy replacement. The hum also went away when I detached the ground wire from the tonearm terminal strip to chassis and instead added a wire from the chassis to the amplifier.

This is even documented in the Service Manual and it completely eliminated the hum.
 
Congrats. I scored my 160 off craigslist a few months ago. My first turntable rebuild/upgrade, challenging as a newbie but doable, and ultimately very rewarding. There's a Thorens owners group here under social groups, great links and resources there. Personally I'd start with the cleaner/lubricants/belt kit sold by an ex-Thorens guy in Germany named Joel. Something like $30 shipped. Good luck and have fun!:thmbsp:
 
RCA hum

Montycat said:
Nice! I worked on one just the other day and the RCA plugs were also bad but were an easy replacement. The hum also went away when I detached the ground wire from the tonearm terminal strip to chassis and instead added a wire from the chassis to the amplifier.

This is even documented in the Service Manual and it completely eliminated the hum.
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Thanks for the input. I looked inside the deck last night and noticed the ground wire you're talking about. Can you elaborate a little on using the component video cables mentioned by Tucker99. I'm guessing the third cable would be used for the ground at the chassis and then at the pre amp.
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cosmoline said:
Thanks for the input. I looked inside the deck last night and noticed the ground wire you're talking about. Can you elaborate a little on using the component video cables mentioned by Tucker99. I'm guessing the third cable would be used for the ground at the chassis and then at the pre amp.
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I don't think Tucker meant to imply using the 3rd cable of the component video as the ground wire, but you could if you want. I would (and have) just used some regular gauge hookup wire for the ground. You can solder it to the same lug that is currently attached to the chassis and remove the wire to the terminal strip.

The advantage of the video cable is lower capacitance due to better shielding. Not all video cables are physically designed the same way. Ideally you would use the ones that you can separate into individual leads and take one of them and strip it away from the others completely. Then cut the ends of the pair that are still together if they are short cables, or if they are longer, cut the length down by half. Capacitance increases with length, so try to limit it to 3' or not much more unless you have to.

In other words a 6' set of video cables will give you enough for 3 turntables or some other use. I have used some heat shrink tubing to help colour code them afterwards instead of the Red Blue Green. The cables are easily found in junk stores with good bang for your buck.
 
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Ok so I have a set of component cables, should I wrap the shield around the bare wire and solder together? I'm going to do this tonight! I'll post some pics, it's probably passé for you guys but its all new to me. Thanks
 
I'd try cleaning the original RCA connectors with a contact cleaner and very fine wet and dry sandpaper before I got the soldering iron out.

In the images, I notice the cover for the termanal strip is not there, although it may have been removed for taking the photo. With the cover installed and clean connectors, I don't have hum on the two TD-160 tables I run.

Edit: Also make sure that the tonearm wires underneath are not in contact with that nearby spring assembly. Tape them to the side of the plinth.
 
Good eye Lee, if you don’t have that cover you will get hum, and I agree do some cleaning before you start soldering new wires on, your original wires might be fine. Lots of info on this in the Thorens group Helpful Thorens Links.
 
Thanks guys I really appreciate your expertise. I think the RCA's have a bigger problem, at the jacks there's feedback with the slightest movement of the cable. Unfortunately I didn't remove the cover of the terminal strip I guess it's missing. I'll definitely tape the tone arm leads to the plinth in fact I heard some static when I applied slight downward pressure to the platter.
 
RCA Repair

So I went ahead and replaced the RCA cable and added a chassis ground to the Pre Amp. I followed the advice and disconnected the original ground from the chassis. No more hum!! One other thing was fixed-the small tab from the chassis that bonds to the bare wires coming from the tone arm was cracked at the solder joint. In the photo you can see the old chassis ground with green tape, I left it in case I had a problem with the new ground.
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Good job. I am glad that worked out.

The original cables were nothing to get excited about anyway. I also left the original ground wire for the same reason and taped it to the terminal cover that you are missing.
 
Montycat's explanation was much clearer than my overly cryptic post, so kudos to him.

Glad you killed the hum and are enjoying the TT.

If you need to buy an extra headshell pls PM me at your convenience.
 
hum modification

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Im looking through the links on the Thorens Owners Group and I came across this bulletin. I added a separate ground wire from the chassis to the preamp but I left the "tab" intact and in fact I actually repaired the solder joint. What have you guys done?
 
Grounding Mod and Suspension Tuneup

Well I went ahead and re-did my first ground mod. I went according to the service bulletin and disconnected the chassis tab (bent back). No problems! I added a bond between the stationary chassis and the floating chassis. I tuned up the suspension according to the tutorial in "The Analog Dept". Leveling the sub chassis was painful at best. I soldered, cleaned, powdered, lubed, and leveled all afternoon and I loved every minute of it! In the grounding mod photo you can see the bent tab, I sharpied it to stand out. Listening to Miles right now-all is good.
The last photo is the template for the new oak bottom plate (maybe tomorrow).
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