Upgrade Opinions, Thorens vs VPI

The Thorens TD 850 is a different beast. It was made by Acoustic Signature and is built like a tank. It is a non-suspended table that absolutely has no resemblance to their sprung tables.

Stock this tables was very good. What I've done to it has elevated it to another level.

That being said, comparing it to my maxed out and modded 150 is not night and day. However, the devil is in the details. 

I could live happily forever with each table. But I am on a limited budget, so mega buck tables are out. They compete with tables in the 5000 range.

These units will play nicely with high end components and will tell you what is happening both up and down stream.

Now,  this is not a path that everyone would or should take as it requires an added skill set to achieve, as well as time. A quicker route would be to buy a Prime and be done with it. I can't imagine ever looking back and regretting that purchase. Although, the personal achievement and satisfaction would not compare when creating something on your own. Or at least, pretty much on your own.

Designing, cutting, drilling, finishing is not factored into the enjoyment of a straight out purchase.

Pride in creating can be of high value when the end results pay off.

Honing a person's woodworking skills should not be spent on a turntable.......leave that for the custom rack.....

Noone can build a prime, nor something that would compete head to head with a 3D tonearm, and be that the fact, the whole pride of ownership thing because someone built something sort of goes out the window.....

The Prime obliterates anything south of 6K in my opnion....especially when you factor in that you can get a significant discount on one......

The pride of ownership will be there......even though you didn't manufacture it in your garage.....

I would get a better cartridge....a turntable upgrade is spinning your wheels

So, building a better plinth is a waste of time? Modifying and building upon an already existing design is also a waste of time?

 That flies in the face of logic because without such activity progress would never occur. Nothing is perfect and everything can be improved upon.

i have no doubt the a stock Prime is an excellent product but that does not make other products less so and a waste of time.

As I indicated, it is when individual creativity and an excellent outcome converge which creates pride in ownership, not just work. Work with out results is just work. Work with results equals pride!

Please reread my post. At no time did I disparage VPI, but rather, I have praised them. My input was to highlight a road less traveled but just as rewarding. Obviously it is not for you but it is for hundreds others.

I would agree that money spent on a great cartridge and phono pre will give tremendous value and should not be taken lightly.

Raymond,

What I am saying is that if someone has said they have a 3K budget, and some of the potential solutions is to throw money at an old table, in hopes of making it a better table, then who am I to say they can't???

I'm noone.......

But:

If someone is going to throw a lot of money, and a lot of time and effort into a "creative" effort to improve on a design that obviously needs a lot of improving on, and they get to the end and the result is only a fraction as successful overall as going and purchasing a current state of the art high value product that will absolutely KILL!!!! the creative exercise.....

then in my case, I'd buy the new and find creative release somewhere else, because in my 30 year history as an audiofool, the end result is the important thing, that I get the absolute highest level of performance I can possibly achieve and that the sound transports me to a live performance, or brings a live performance to me......

Will a Prime get him there better than a home modified Thorens?

I say it will......and I also say the comparison will not be even close.....

I've owned Thorens, Dual and several VPI tables including Scout, Classic 1, Classic 3, TNT 2nd generation and recently an HR-X.  

I am now going to try the suspended world with a new Oracle Delphi MK VI 2nd Gen and an Oracle SME V arm/Transig Proteus cartridge.......

Which I will immediately start trying to improve upon in my garage.....
LOL