TD 402 DD (Gloss Black)

A great turntable for a reasonable price. It is a well built and very well designed piece of equipment. I have checked speed/wow and flutter multiple times since my purchase one year ago. The results are well below detectable limits. A real surprise was when I checked the anti-skate with a blank record. It was dead nuts on with the setting at 1.6 grans (my tracking force). One review speaks to "muddy sound". I can't comment on that as I immediately replaced the factory cartridge with an Ortofon black from a prior unit and one month later replaced it with an Ortofon 250 LVB black. Frankly, this turntable deserves far better than the factory $50.00 cartridge. With that change I have never experienced sound of such outstanding quality incredible imaging with a full and complete soundstage. I would, however offer this bit of advice. The interconnect cables - RCA compatible - are of rather low quality and i had AC hum. I immediately replaced them with Pro-Ject cables which completely resolved the issue.

I had a very good experience with this turntable until it decided to not work properly anymore. The tonearm drops too fast. All the basic troubleshooting was performed. User manual does not mention anything specific about troubleshooting issues with damping (maybe Thorens do not expect damping issues to happen but it happened to me). User manual needs to be more comprehensive. Still waiting for Thorens to reply after I reached out to them for help.

Nothing to dislike, sound quality is superb build is superb. Thorens is a world renowned name.

I received Thorens TT very well packaged in 2 boxes. Audio Technica cartridge supplied with TT was immediately replaced with Audio-Technica AT33EV Elliptical Nude Dual Moving Coil Cartridge installed on Audio Technica shellhead for straight tonearms. Tonearm in this TT is of carbon fiber. DD motor is very silent. TT is connected directly to MC input of Mcintoch C70 preamp. So far I'm pleased with the performance of my new Thorens. 06/14/21 TT is connected to the preamp by Audioquest interconencts and AudioQuest ground cable purchased from Amazon. Several days ago I heard first time humming noise while listening on high volume. I didn't change ground cable. Instead of Audioquest interconnects I installed quite expensive Kimber interconnects and to my surprise I had no sound at all. Audioquest cable was placed back and very low volume humming noise continued. I'll try to find the original very inexpensive cable supplied with Thorens and try it out. Will update soon. 7/5/2021 I bought from Amazon for $99 Pro-Ject tonearm interconnects supplied with ground cable. Humming noise disappeared. 3/26/2022 I got for my son McIntosh MA252 integrated amplifier which doesn't have connection for MC cartridge, only for MM cartridge, I removed MC cartridge and installed back AV95 SH - with shibata nidlle. I bought for him B&M 805D4 with Sub DB3s, SAUCD. MQA, Streemer by Technics SL-G700. And I again was hearing hamming noise. After long evaluation of the ground cable end of TD i discovered 2 thin washers. Per my experience its a must to position the spade of the ground cable between those two washers. then hamming noise disappear. As the relacemnt I purchased Thorens TD 1601 with Sumiko, Starling MC cartridge, which has XLR outputs in addition to RCA outputs.. Therefore it was a good much for my MP1000 McIntosh Phono Preamp.However I again forgot that the ground spade must be positioned between two thin washer. Upon return of the memory ground cable was installed properly and no hamming noise has heard, Whish you luck with Thorense graund installatins and cables,

Make sure you read the reviews before you buy this sound quality is muddy base and far from perfect soundstage I would recommend buying the den on DP 300 and spending the extra money on a order fine black cartridge and at $1000 you’ll have a better Turntable