Get my turntable fixed or buy a new one?


Here's the situation.  In 1988 when turntables were dissapearing I bought a Thorens TD-320 for $600 that included a signet cartridge.   It has served me well over the years.  It was In Storage for about four years along with the rest of my system.  I recently unpacked everything, hooked it up and found that the turntable wasn't working.  I am faced with this dilemma, I can probably get the Thorens fixed.  Found some guys in the Philly area that work on them.  On the other hand it's almost 30 years old.  Is it worth getting it fixed or should I get a new one.  If you vote for new, give me some ideas as to what brands and models you would recommend of comparable quality.

My current system includes:

Krell KRC-3 pre, Krell KSA 200S amp, Parasound Z-Phono phono pre, Revel Performance F32 speakers and Ayre CD Player
128x128pipebro
Pipebro - You are doing the right thing getting it fixed.  It's a fairly simple unit from am electronics point of view and quick internet search shows that there are plenty of parts available and that more often than not, the power connector or switch is the likely culprit - should be inexpensive to get going and you could probably fix it yourself.  

For example you could test the output of your power supply with a multimeter to verify it's function, then perhaps bypass the connector or the power switch and see if that solved it.  Either way it's probably worth investing some time and money in to get it going.

All of that said, if I were you and had 700 LPs in my collection I'd also consider getting a new table regardless.  Since your collection goes back to the 50's, it might be fun to set up the 320 with a decent mono cart and get a new table for more contemporary recordings.

Perhaps I'm just a hoarder, but that's what I'd probably do :)

Greg

Thanks for the response.  I thought about getting a multimeter and doing some testing myself.   I used to be an aviation electronics tech in the Navy.  But it's been so long I might not remember what to do. I still might try that.
No estimate yet.  Won't get one until I send it in.  Before I do that I'm going to replace the power cord in case that's the problem.  Tough to rate the Parasound.  I recently got it on audiogon and listened to it for about 15 minutes when I had the turntable working.