Bruce has owned his Thorens TD125 since new and with the exception of the thrust plate and bearing it is in great original condition.
Given how well Bruce had looked after his TD125 it was an honour to have been given the opportunity to upgrade it and bring it up to a better than new condition.
First we completely striped down the TD125 to inspect all parts to ensure we weren’t going to get any surprises along the way. This meant we were able to provide Bruce with a complete quote with no surprises. We presented Bruce with both our recommendations as well as a few optional upgrades.
Once Bruce had accepted our recommendations and upgrade options the process was underway.
The factory in Adelaide run by Simon Wilde began the plinth building process whilst I worked on the rejuvenation and upgrade of the original components.
After the complete strip down we cleaned and lubricated all moving parts as well as dampened any components susceptible to resonance and vibration.
The motor measured well speed was accurate, consistent, and had minimal noise and vibration. It was also dampened to reduce any unwanted vibrations and isolated from the main chassis.
The power supply components were checked, any suspicious components replaced and the main PCB board re soldered to ensure reliability.
The arm board was repainted in an original hard wearing flat black finish.
Suspension springs and grommets were replaced, and the chassis was re-levelled.
Due to the age of the turntable the bearing and thrust plate were heavily worn and were no longer usable. The vibration caused by this main bearing wear was significant but consistent with most of the Thorens turntables we have worked on from this era. Normally this wear alone would render the turntable unsalvageable, since replacement parts are not available. However, HiFi Guru have developed a special ceramic replacement thrust plate specifically for this purpose. We polished and rotated the main bearing presenting the thrust plate with a brand new surface to engage with. Then replaced the damaged stainless steel thrust plate with the new ceramic version. Had we repaired the bearing alone the damaged thrust plate would have destroyed the original bearing within weeks of operation. These high tech ceramic thrust plates are designed to outlast the turntable itself and protect the irreplaceable main bearing rendering the turntable serviceable for many many years (see images below).
TD125 Bearing before 
original thrust plate polished bearing after HiFi Guru ceramic thrust plate upgrade
With the new Ceramic thrust plate installed the vibration, noise, wow and flutter was reduced to values comparable with many expensive new turntables we have tested. It surprisingly also left a couple of brands well over 15,000 dollars trailing behind, a great plus for the build quality of the older Thorens equipment. These measurements were taken using the AnalogueMajik software as well as professional recording equipment.
A longer, shielded power cable was directly wired to the power supply for improved performance and protection from unwanted noise.
We installed isolating, adjustable aftermarket feet to custom made internal oversized plinth bracing. These feet were supplied by the customer as he had already purchased them.
The Plinth in Bruce’s custom chosen colour was complete and the colour came up beautifully. The colour he had chosen was a water based paint which is not what we normally use so the process took longer. Our spray booth is tooled up for solvent based paints so we did have a delay in getting the clear cotes sorted. Simon ended up making an entirely new booth in the warehouse dedicated solely for water based spraying.
High grade RCA sockets were installed to the rear of the new plinth with custom made Analysis Plus ultra flexible internal phono cable. This was to ensure Bruce’s aftermarket larger stiffer cabled did not adversely influence the correct suspension operation of the turntable.
Bruce was kind enough to leave us a glowing review on Stereonet, Thank you Bruce! review below
