Thorens TD 520 Turntable Review

Despite the rapid acceptance of the CD as a source of recorded music—or perhaps because of it—the development of improved analog record players has not ceased. In fact, the new Thorens TD 520 turntable is not only the most refined record player to come from that well-known Swiss company but arguably the most versatile turntable available for home use. It is one of the very few contemporary turntables designed to operate at all three speeds—33-2/3, 45, and 78 rpm—and it can play 16-inch discs as well as all smaller sizes.

Like other recent Thorens turntables, the TD 520 is belt-driven. The platter-and-tonearm system is constructed as a rigidly coupled assembly and floated on very soft (compliant) springs from the motor-board. This type of construction affords the maximum isolation of the playing system from its surroundings and minimizes the effects of acoustic feedback. The platter is driven from a sixteen-pole synchronous motor powered by an electronic two-phase generator whose frequency is determined by a stable Wien-bridge oscillator.

The two-piece platter, cast of nonmagnetic zinc alloy, weighs just under 7 pounds. The main platter rests on a smaller platter that is driven by the belt. Stroboscope markings underneath the driven platter are illuminated by a neon lamp and are visible through a window on the top of the motorboard. Unlike turntables whose speed is changed by shifting the belt to a different pulley diameter, the speed of the TD 520 is controlled by the frequency of the oscillator that supplies the motor drive signal. A continuously variable pitch control operates over a limited range.

The TD 520 is a large turntable. Its base is made of heavy wood for acoustical damping, and it is supported on rubber feet. The platter/tonearm system resonates at just a few hertz. The external power transformer is connected to the record player by a cable about 6 feet long; the transformer plugs directly into a wall socket.

The TD 520 is fitted with the latest version of the popular Thorens TP 16 tonearm, the TP 16 Mk YL. The arm is first balanced by an adjustable counterweight, and then the vertical tracking force is set by a calibrated spring through an adjustment on the pivot structure. Antiskating correction is applied by a frictionless magnetic assembly adjusted by a knob on the side of the tonearm base. The same turntable as the TD 520 is also available, as the TD 521, with no arm and an undrilled arm board.

The operating controls of the TD 520 are distributed across its front surface. A three-position knob selects the operating speed, and a vernier knob can be used to vary the speed slightly. Pushbuttons turn the motor on and off, and a knob at the right of the player operates the arm lift. The arm will not descend unless the turntable is on, and at the end of play a frictionless optical system triggers the arm lift and shuts off the motor. During play there is no mechanical connection between the tonearm and the rest of the system except, of course, the stylus/groove contact.

The Thorens TD 520 measures 21-5/8 inches wide, 16-3/8 inches deep, and 6-7/8 inches high with its clear-plastic hinged dust cover lowered. It weighs 33 pounds. Price: $999.

Lab Tests

We installed a Shure V-15 Type V-MR cartridge in the Thorens tonearm for our tests. The arm does not have a removable headshell, but the cartridge mounting plate can be rotated 360 degrees to simplify installation. After we balanced the arm, the actual vertical force was typically within 0.05 gram of the scale indication. The tracking error of the extra-long TP 16 arm was less than 0.5 degree per inch of radius over a 12-inch record.

Turntable rumble was —41 dB unweighted, —62 dB with ARLL weighting, and — 68 dB with DIN-B weighting. The flutter was very low, 0.04 percent IIS-weighted RMS and ± 0.05 percent DIN-weighted peak. The arm’s effective mass was 14 grams, and with the Shure cartridge the system resonated at a nearly ideal 9 Hz. The system tracked severely warped records very well. The antiskating dial calibrations were approximately correct, and the antiskating torque shifted the arm only slightly outward on its descent, repeating about 3 or 4 seconds of a record each time it was cycled up and down.

The motor required about 9 seconds to accelerate the heavy platter from a standstill to 33-1/3 rpm. The speed was correct when the stroboscope pattern was stationary, and it could be adjusted over a range of +4.4 to — 10.6 percent. The turntable’s suspension proved to be extremely effective in isolating it from any external vibration conducted through the mounting feet. There were only two low-level transmission modes, at 15 and 50 Hz. Comparison with our test data on other turntables showed that the TD 520 was very similar in this respect to other recent Thorens models, such as the TD 320, and comparable to the best we have measured in its overall immunity to external disturbances.

Comments

While the Thorens TD 520 may not be “everyman’s record player,” it is certainly an answer to the present and future needs of serious record collectors. Most people with extensive record collections, which usually include 78-rpm discs and possibly even 16-inch transcription recordings, have required at least two and sometimes three record players to handle the various sizes and speeds involved. The TD 520 is the first we have seen that will play almost every record made in the past fifty or sixty years. The only exceptions that come to mind are 16-2/3-rpm talking books and a handful of music discs at that speed that were produced about 30 years ago for a short-lived Chrysler automobile record player!

There is one possible difficulty, however, since the new Thorens tonearm does not lend itself to easy cartridge changes, unlike earlier versions that used interchangeable arm wands or headshells. The special plug-in alternate styli that are available for some cartridges might solve this problem.

In every other respect, the TD 520 is a superb turntable, about as good as they come in respect to low flutter and rumble and with extremely good acoustic isolation. Even before it is turned on, its size and weight set it apart from run-of-the-mill record players. Clearly, it was created for the serious phonophile who realizes that the selection of suitable record players is certain to shrink as the years go by. The TD 520 is built for the long haul, and it is an impressive product.

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