Проигрыватели виниловых дисков — Thorens TD 1500

The TD 1500 is a manual turntable from Thorens with belt drive that revives the suspended sub-chassis layout of the original TD 150 introduced in 1965. It ships as a complete package with the in-house TP 150 tonearm and a factory-fitted Ortofon 2M Bronze moving magnet cartridge, and its US price was USD 2,999. Thorens offers it in Black High Gloss and in a walnut version. Operation is entirely manual, with no automatic lift or return.

Key specs that matter

It plays at 33 1/3 and 45 rpm, and the speed is switched by the electronics, so the owner never lifts the platter to reposition the belt. Drive comes from a DC motor, and a flat belt ground to precise tolerances links it to the platter. The 12-inch platter is die-cast from aluminium, 22 mm thick and weighing 1.4 kg, which is well under the 3.2 kg platter of the older TD 150. The TP 150 is a nine-inch static-balance arm with a J-shaped tube, 232.8 mm of effective length and an effective mass of 14 g. The deck measures 42 cm wide, 16.1 cm high with the lid and 36 cm deep, and weighs 7.9 kg.

Engineering and use context

Platter and tonearm board sit on a sub-chassis that is decoupled from the motor and plinth by three conical springs, and each spring can be adjusted from above through dedicated openings in the platter, so levelling does not require turning the deck over. Motor speed is monitored by an incremental encoder, and any deviation is corrected automatically by the control electronics. The arm offers adjustable height for VTA and adjustable azimuth, while anti-skating uses a small movable weight hanging on a nylon thread that runs over a ruby bearing. A standard SME connector lets the owner swap headshells and try other cartridges. The fitted 2M Bronze carries a nude Fine Line diamond stylus. The box includes cartridge installation tools, an overhang gauge and an LP-sized template with a strobe disc, and anti-skate arrives preset from the factory.

Pairing

The rear panel carries conventional RCA sockets and also balanced XLR outputs. With the supplied high-output MM cartridge, an MM-capable phono input is sufficient, connected through the RCA pair. If the owner later mounts a moving coil cartridge on a spare headshell, the XLR sockets allow true balanced operation into a phono preamplifier that accepts a balanced input.

Alternatives

The Thorens TD 1600 is a larger sub-chassis deck with an AC synchronous motor, a 4.2 kg platter, the knife-edge TP 160 arm and an external linear power supply.