Need help with Phono Cartridge for Thorens TD-166-MKII

[sonictonicmusic]

Greetings,

I am planning to purchase a Thorens TD-166-MKII, which does not come with a cartridge.

Since I will need to buy one..any thoughts or experience for what might be a good fit and why?

Also, I welcome any feedback and ideas from other owners of the Thorens TD-166-MKII

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and feedback.

[EC8010]

Welcome to the forum!

As I recall, the TD166 comes with its own (rather indifferent) arm having a removable "wand" near the pivot. The headshell is somewhat flimsy, but there isn't much point in doing anything about it because the joint isn't rigid either. The arm's horizontal bearings are exactly what you'd find in a bicycle wheel - cup and cone.

How do I know all this? I suffered the arm as an impoverished student. I made a more rigid headshell and convinced myself it was worth the effort (it probably wasn't) and one day the arm wouldn't follow the groove. I opened it up and found the cup and cone horribly pitted.

To cut a long story short, I'd suggest you find an arm more worthy of the turntable. Maybe even make one. Then you can fit a decent cartridge and not risk your record collection.

[analog_sa]

Originally posted by EC8010
I suffered the arm as an impoverished student.

So did i. Albeit very briefly. Tried several cartridges. The moving coils simply didn't work. The arm requires a high compliance cart; a Pickering and a Shure worked really well.

[makinson1]

Hope yer gettin the Thorens really cheap cause the comments about the tonearm are understatements. And the mounting method is kinda problematic for a retrofit :-)
My advice would be to pick up an used tonearm that hasn't had the bearings trashed or overtightened, then find out what cartridges would be appropriate for the given effective moving mass. E.G., high mass, then maybe a stiff cartridge like the Denon DL-160 or one of the new Ortophon Dance cartridges. Low mass, can't go wrong with a Grado.

[Irakli]

Hi,

I have Thorens 166 Mk II and currently I am using AT 440MLA and before that I had Grado.

Your Thorens probably has TP11 MkIII arm with effective mass 7.5g

You need to choose a cartridge with such a mass and compliance that resonant frequency (f) ideally should be in the range of 10-12Hz.
How you do it:
get cartridge data.
add tonearm effective mass to cartridge mass (M).
calculate resonant frequency using formula:

f(Hz)=(1/(2*3.14))*SQRT(C *M)
where M is combined mass (in grams) and C is compliance (x10^-6 cm/dyne)

F should be between 10-12 Hz