Thorens TD 125 (1968) and TD 125 Mk. II (from 1972)
– the legends heir

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TD 125 with tonearm TP 25

TD 125 Mk II with tonearm TP 16

AC synchronous motor, belt drive, 16, 33 and 45 rpm, electronically switched, pitch +/- 2%, platter weight 3.2 kg (with subplatter), platter and armbase suspended by three-spring-subchassis, manual operation

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My story :

The Thorens TD 125 Mk. II that is shown here is a quite special one - it’s the very rare LB version (LB stands for “Long Base”) that was produced in small numbers to carry the SME 3012 tonearm.

It carried a hefty price tag in the early Seventies - with perspex dust cover and tonearm it did cost nearly 1400 Deutsche Mark, and a cartridge was NOT included. For comparison : in 1972 1400 DM were c. 450 USD or c. 200 UKP.

And even today this version is rare and very sought after, so I’m very happy that I got this one for just 159 Euros including an Ortofon MC-10 cartridge plus matching step-up transformer STM-72. I saw it on the pages of eBay Germany only minutes after the seller put it in, and within a second my mouse pointer hit the “Buy it now”-button.
The seller obviously had no idea what he had, so I was the lucky guy this time.

The turntable is in great shape as you can see in the picture, I just had to blow off the dust and polish the veneer a bit. I sold the MC-10 to a friend and installed my SPU GM/E which now feeds an ASL Mini Phono via the STM-72 transformer (ASL = Antique Sound Lab).

The sound is absolutely stunning ...