Thorens TD 146

What model Linn deck/arm (many were paired with low mass arms)?

Off the top of my head AT and Ortofon have current model high compliance offerings and, and hopefully others will chime in with current production choices.

I use an old Grado Silver on my SME 3009 (non-improved) which has an effective mass of around 12-13 and it's fine.

Start by finding the spec's (effective mass) on your TP11 and also positively ID the specific TP11 model via online photos.

Then go from there.

DeKay

The tonearm on the TD-146 is actually listed in the manual as a TP-11 MkIII instead of MkII as I stated earlier and the effective mass is listed as 7.5g.

OK, now research the arm on the Linn you are considering as well as the model of the Linn deck.

Are the "older" Linn decks better than the older Thorens?

Not, IMO.

DeKay

Maybe the Thorens are up there with the Linn. It just appeared to me that the Ittok was a more substantial arm. Isn't the TP-11 on the 146 a plastic arm? Thanks (-:

After doing a little more research on the TD-146, I discovered that there were actually six different versions of that turntable. Mine was the first version and it apparently had the TP-11 MkII. Some versions of the table had the MkIII arm which was 2mm longer. Both had an effective mass of 7.5g.

Back in the day, I thought that the black wand was carbon fiber, but a sales brochure for the TD-166 MkII with TP-11 MkIII arm states that it is a coating that utilizes "split-wave" technology to eliminate resonances.

So, I'm assuming that it is a coating over whatever alloy they used for the tonearm and not plastic

Check out the analog dept dot com. That's where I saw the sales brochure and tonearm data.