When I first rescued my 124 from a friends garage, I went through and cleaned and lubed it, made sure things were in proper working order. Just some elbow grease and a new belt, and the table came up to speed and worked just fine. I installed a NOS ADC LMF 2 arm on it, refinished the base, and tossed on a variety of MM cartridge for a listen to.
Last week i received a Clear Audio Signature back from being retipped, and for a trial run I tossed it on the ADC arm. Sure it is not the best arm to use this cartridge on, but it was just a quick and dirty trial. Well it sounded pretty darn good! Good enough that I left it on there all week and listened to an armful of vinyl every night.
OK I decided it is time to invest some money in the 124. This table and cartridge is supposed to be my beater rig that I play 80's pop and rock on, but I think I am going to take it a bit further. on another site that I frequent, there is a guy who does refurbs and upgrades to AR tables, and has done some amazing bearing work. So I sent off my platter and bearing well for him to work his magic on. The improvements to the AR bearings is remarkable, and the Thorens looks to be no different. What his exact plan of attack will be I cannot say for sure, but I do trust him to do a great job on it. This is the first step.
I also will need to find a new home for the ADC arm, as the Clear Audio is going to be the cartridge of choice for this table. I have been considering finding one of the Sumiko 9CC arms for this table, as it looks to be a good match for the Clear Audio cartridge. they really are quite an under the radar arm, and have a fairly reasonable price considering their build quality. I have thought of the possibility of having an extended plinth built, and one that could be configured for a second 12 inch arm.
In the mean time i need to get a new set of motor mounts, a new set of isolation bushings, and decide if the idler wheel really needs to be swapped out. From what I see it is fairly compliant, and it runs true. So a couple of tweaks here and there, and the table should be good to go.
Oh I do need a replacement top platter, one that will allow me shielding between the MC cartridge and the iron platter. There are no attraction issues with the stock one in place, but it was dinged by the previous owner, and needs to be replaced. I am considering one of the Delrin and aluminium ones from Applied Fidelity, and a removal of the cork pads on the iron platter. I had also considered acrylic, but i cannot find one that is 1/2" thick and drilled for a spindle hole and not a Rega spindle bearing.
I look forward to hearing how this turntable turns out!
Regards
Mister Pig
