Description
Thorens TD-160 – Belt Drive Turntable
The Thorens TD-160 turntable was introduced by Thorens in 1972 to replace the TD-150. It’s one of the classic turntables of its era and is still very popular today. Thorens produced the TD-160 for a number of years and it was their best seller for quite some time. It was discontinued in 1988 but various versions of it such as the such as Super, MKII and BC2 were made into the 1990s. The TD-160 was produced in Switzerland for awhile and then production moved to Germany. Thorens also made the TD-165 which was a lower priced version of the TD-160.
The TD-160 is a beautiful turntable with sleek and understated aesthetics. It is simply and elegantly designed with a modernist look based upon the Bauhaus school of design. Since it only has controls for speed and tonearm queuing the top is uncluttered. The top plate is two-toned steel gray and black with the tear drop shaped control knobs contrasting the black portion. A metal strip running along the front of the teak veneered plinth acts as both a decorative piece as well as a rest for the dust cover.
The TD-160 is a manual, belt-drive, two-speed (33 and 45) turntable. Like its predecessor the TD-150, it has a floating sub-chassis suspended by three adjustable springs, and a synchronous, 16-pole AC motor.
While the TD-160 is a manual table it does have a cueing mechanism. The cueing control knob is connected via cable to the tonearm lift thereby allowing the user to raise or drop the tonearm via the control.
The TD-160 came with the TP-16 tonearm and the plug-in, magnesium head shell was a Thorens TP-60. While the TP-16 is a good performing tonearm it has its deficiencies. At the time of production heavier tonearms were common, but later low mass (low compliance) tonearms became more popular and cartridge manufacturers focused on producing cartridges for those tonearms. This meant fewer cartridge choices for TP16 owners. You might occasionally see a TD-160 BC model which was the TD-160 but without a tonearm. It also had a blank tonearm board, and no lift/lower mechanism. It was made for those who wanted to choose their own tonearm for the TD-160. Many used the SME tonearms of the day.
