TD 2010 - Turntable THORENS - Free user manual and instructions

USER MANUAL TD 2010 THORENS

UNPACKING AND ASSEMBLY

PLACEMENT AND CONNECTIONS

MOUNTING THE PICKUP CARTRIDGE

Introduction Congratulations for your purchase of the new TD 2010 / 2030. We hope that your new record player will give you lots of listening pleasure. In combination with a good pickup cartridge this turntable is to yield outstanding sound. Manufacturing and assembly of this record player has been carried out in Germany which will guarantee you its high quality and functionality being maintained for many years to come. Please keep in mind that this device is a precision instrument and therefore requires some attention and care. We strongly advise to read these instructions attentively before proceeding with the set-up as it contains all necessary information and guidance for assembly, placement, set-up and configuration of your new record player. In the event that you have any question this user manual cannot answer please do not hesitate to ask your Thorens dealer for further assistance.

OPERATING YOUR UNIT! CAUTION To reduce risk of electric shock, do not remove the cover (or back). No user-serviceable parts inside. WARNING TO PREVENT FIRE OR SHOCK HAZARD, DO NOT EXPOSE THIS APPLIANCE TO RAIN OR MOISTURE.

EXPLANATION OF GRAPHICAL SYMBOLS

The lightning flash with arrowhead symbol, within an equilateral triangle, is intended to alert you to the presence of uninsulated ‘dangerous voltage’ within the product’s enclosure that may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute an electric shock to persons. The exclamation point within an equilateral triangle is intended to alert you to the presence of important operating and maintenance (servicing) instructions in the literature accompanying the appliance. This product was tested and complies with all the requirements for the CE Mark. IMPORTANT: DISPOSAL OF WASTE EQUIPMENT BY USERS IN PRIVATE HOUSEHOLDS

IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

This symbol on the product or on its packaging indicates that this product must not be disposed off with your other household waste. Instead, it is your responsibility to dispose of your waste equipment by handing it over to a designated collection point for the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment. The separate collection and recycling of your waste equipment at the time of disposal will help to conserve natural resources and ensure that it is recycled in a manner that protects human health and the environment. For more information about where you can drop off your waste equipment for recycling, please contact your local city office, your household waste disposal service or the shop where you purchased the product.

Unpacking and Assembly Carefully remove the unit and its accessories from the shipping box. Supplied items: 1 x user manual 1 x plinth (with/without tonearm) 1 x motor in housing 1 x Thorens drive belt 1 x platter with felt mat 1 x tonearm counterweight 1 x electronic control unit PS 800 1 x mains adaptor 1 x power cord 1 x set of RCA interconnecting leads 1 x adaptor for single records 3 x protective disks 2 x cotton glove ATTENTION: The surface of both plinth and platter is quite sensitive to scratches. It is therefore recommended to wear the supplied gloves whilst the record player is being assembled.

Proceed with placing the three protective disks where the record player is eventually going to stay. They are provided to prevent the sensitive surface of furniture from being damaged by the record player’s spiked feet. Now put the record player respectively its feet onto the disks and after the final position has been achieved make sure that the plinth is fairly level. For any fine-adjustments turn the tip of each foot up or down until the plinth is in a perfect horizontal position. This procedure is best controlled (and corrected if necessary) with the help of good spirit level. The motor housing is now to be inserted into the dedicated recess at the rear left corner. This is carried out by having the plinth lifted up and the motor positioned exactly beneath the recess. Slowly lower the plinth so that the motor housing is entering the recess. Great care should be taken while doing this in order to prevent any scratches on the plinth surface. Being in its final position the motor housing should not be touching the inside of the recess. Now take the platter with both hands and hold its axle perpendicular over the hole in the bearing. Slowly and very carefully insert the axle into the bearing while making sure that it must not forcefully hit the bottom of the bearing. After the platter has been put in place turn it manually to see if it runs smoothly and with ease. Add felt mat and finally loop the belt around the outer rim of the platter and the motor pulley (Fig. 1). Avoid any oil or greasy substance to get onto the belt and the transmission area of platter and motor pulley. If necessary you may clean them with a lint-free tissue soaked in an alcoholic dilution (e.g. ethanol). Unless you have acquired your record player with tonearm, you can now proceed with mounting a foreign tone arm according to the instructions supplied by its manufacturer. Otherwise your record player is now completely assembled. IMPORTANT: It is highly recommended to save the shipping box and all packing material in case the record player needs to be packed again for transportation. Fig. 1 Thorens cannot be held responsible for any damage that may occur during transport on the ground that the record player has not been properly packed.

Placement and Connections Connect the cord coming from the motor housing to the rear panel of the electronic control unit PS 800 (Fig. 2.1). ATTENTION: Before connecting the record player to the mains power please make sure that the power switch on the PS 800 unit is set to OFF and the speed selector switch set to “33” (Fig.2.2). The PS 800 unit is connected to the mains by using the supplied mains adaptor and the power cord plugged into a wall socket (Fig. 2.3). Fig. 2.1 Fig. 2.2 Fig. 2.3 Fig. 2.4 ATTENTION: Never disconnect the motor plug from the PS 800 unit while it is switched ON. Disregarding this advise may damage the electronic circuitry inside the PS 800. Take the RCA interconnect leads and plug them into the designated (phono) input jacks at the rear side of your amplifier or receiver. Make sure that polarity (left/right channel!) is correct.

Hint: if your amplifier lacks a built-in phono stage you need to acquire a special external phono-preamplifier. For amplifiers/receivers featuring a 5-pin DIN-socket at the phono input section you will need a special adaptor (RCA to DIN) which may be available from your Thorens dealer. When placing the record player to its final position make sure that it is a fair distance away from other audio devices, such as amplifier, receiver or CD player. This measure is to avoid electro-magnetic interferences which can yield a distorting effect in the sensitive pickup cartridge, which may be audible as hum during playback. Electro-magnetic interferences however can be disclosed and eliminated by simply changing the position of the record player with respect to the other devices. Thorens record players are relatively insensitive when subject to foot-fall shocks or airborne resonance. Nevertheless, a general problem remains when it comes to playing back vinyl records with a high-quality pickup cartridge. It is therefore highly recommended to choose a sturdy piece of furniture for placement and to avoid the proximity of the record player to the loudspeakers. Under certain circumstances all these precautions may not be good enough in older houses with wooden floor construction. Here, in most cases a solid shelf firmly mounted to a supporting wall can be very beneficial for the sonic properties of the record player if it is placed on such a shelf or console.

Mounting the pickup cartridge You can now mount and adjust your pickup cartridge according to the instructions provided with the pickup or with the tonearm. In the following chapters you’ll find some comprehensive hints and advise concerning the correct mounting of Thorens tonearms. They may accordingly be used for mounting foreign tonearms as well, yet if in doubt you should in any case resort to the original instructions provided by the manufacturer of the tonearm. Special hints about the configuration of the Thorens tonearms TP 250 and TP 300 are to be found on page 31-32 of this manual. Hint: If you happen to have acquired this record player as a complete system, i.e. with tonearm and pickup cartridge, there are no adjustments necessary because everything has already been carried out for you in the Thorens factory. Only the tracking force needs to be adjusted. Mount the pickup cartridge to the slots in the tonearm’s headshell. While doing this basic work it is recommended to leave the stylus guard attached to the cartridge in order to avoid damaging of the delicate stylus and cantilever.

Thorens tonearms will accept any pickup cartridge with the standard fixing hole distance of 12.5 mm (1/2 ”). Carefully and with the help of tweezers the four colourcoded litz wires coming from the tonearm’s headshell are attached to the respective pins (identical colours) at the rear face of the cartridge.

right channel, red (signal) right channel, green (ground) left channel, white (signal) left channel, blue (ground) For the time being do not tighten the headshell screws. Fine-adjusting and fixing the cartridge is done after having determined the final tone arm height. Hint: If Grado pickup cartridges are going to be employed it is recommended to fix the cartridge with the screws “upside down”. This means that the screws are inserted from underneath through the holes of cartridge and headshell whereby the nuts are to fix the screws on top of the headshell. Adjusting tonearm height The counterweight is attached to the rear end of the tonearm by some slight pressure and a clockwise rotation towards the tonearm’s bearings (Fig. 3). ATTENTION: Great care is necessary for the following mounting and adjust-ment procedures, because the slightest mistake may damage the stylus and cantilever of your pickup cartridge. Carefully detach the stylus guard from the cartridge. Lower the lift lever and move the tonearm to a position in between tonearm rest and the outer rim of the platter. Now balance the tonearm by rotating the counterweight either clockwise or counter-clock-wise until total equilibrium has been achieved. Hint: anti-skating force as well as tracking force (unless it is generated by the counterweight like with the TP 250) must in any case be set to “0”. Put an old, worn record onto the platter and lower the tonearm by the lift lever. The tonearm tube should then be parallel to the record (to be visualised from the side). If this is not the case the so-called Vertical Tracking Angle (VTA) should be adjusted. Fig. 3 A special clamp mechanism (Fig. 3) however allows to individually adjust the VTA according to the size of the mounted pickup cartridge. Adjustments are made by simply loosening the screw of the clamp mechanism and carefully sliding the entire tonearm slightly up or down. Before doing so we advise to move the tonearm back onto its rest. After the correct position for the VTA has been found the clamp screw is to be tightened again.

Alignment of pickup cartridge Only a painstakingly aligned pickup cartridge is able to compliment the outstanding sonic capabilities and potential of this record player. If you consider the alignment too difficult to be carried out by yourself, do not hesitate to ask your Thorens dealer for a helping hand. ATTENTION: When aligning the cartridge great care is once more obligatory in order to avoid that the delicate stylus or sensitive parts of the tonearm are being damaged. If you are a newcomer without any experience it is better to leave this work to an expert who knows the specific characteristics of most cartridges. A badly aligned pickup cartridge will be well on the way to yield bad sound and to damage your records! Azimuth: This is the angle between cantilever and record groove. It should be exactly 90° (excluding those cartridges in which the cantilever has purposely been installed with a slight offset). Azimuth can be adjusted neither on the TP 250 nor on the TP 300. It is therefore most important that a cartridge with precise azimuth is going to be mounted.

Offset: this is the angle between the longitudinal axis of the pickup cartridge and the tonearm’s longitudinal axis. In all pivoted tonearms (like TP 250 and TP 300) the optimum angle is to be found between 21° and 24°. The special cartridge alignment gauge required for this adjustment may be available from your Thorens dealer. Overhang: this is the distance between the stylus tip and the centre of the platter spindle. For the TP 250 and TP 300 the overhang should be 17 mm. The special cartridge alignment gauge required for this adjustment may be available from your Thorens dealer. Tonearm TP 250 (TD 2010) Adjusting the tonearm lift: It has already been adjusted in the factory and can be considered suitable for nearly all pickup cartridges in the market. However in the unlikely case that the tonearm lift needs to be re-adjusted to fit a special cartridge please contact your Thorens dealer. Anti-skating force (bias): This is adjusted by shifting the button on the tonearm’s lift bench (2). It is recommended to set the anti-skating force slight below the value of the tracking force. Adjustment of tracking force: Make sure to inquire the recommended tracking force for your pickup cartridge from either the cartridge manufacturer or by consulting the mounting instructions supplied with the cartridge. Tracking force is usually adjusted between 10 and 25 mN (corresponding to 1.0 and 2.5 grams). Tonearm TP 250

tonearm lift lever tonearm bench counterweight Hint: Do not set too low a tracking force, because this may prevent the pickup car-tridge from tracking properly. After the tonearm has been correctly balanced (see page

29) you can apply the tracking force by rotating the counterweight (3) according to the following scheme: a half turn

of the counterweight corresponds to a tracking force of 10 mN (1.0 g) whereby a full turn corresponds to a force of 20 mN (2.0 g). Turning the counter-weight towards the bearings will increase tracking force, whereas turning the weight into the opposite direction will decrease it. Make sure that the tonearm is kept in its armrest before doing these adjustments.

Tonearm TP 300 (TD 2030) Adjusting the tonearm lift: It has already been adjusted in the factory and can be considered suitable for nearly all pickup cartridges in the market. However in the unlikely case that the tonearm lift needs to be re-adjusted to fit a special cartridge please contact your Thorens dealer. Anti-skating force (bias): This is adjusted by shifting the button on the tonearm’s lift bench (2). It is recommended to set the anti-skating force slight below the value of the tracking force. Adjustment of tracking force: Make sure to inquire the recommended tracking force for your pickup cartridge from either the cartridge manufacturer or by consulting the mounting instructions supplied with the cartridge. Tracking force is usually adjusted between 10 and 25 mN (corresponding to 1.0 and 2.5 grams). Tonearm TP 300

tonearm lift lever tonearm bench counterweight anti-skating dial knob Hint: Do not set too low a tracking force, because this may prevent the pickup cartridge from tracking properly. Tracking force is applied by a spring inside the bearing assembly. After the tonearm has been correctly balanced (see page 29) you can adjust the tracking force by turning the dial knob (4) at the bearing assembly. Set tracking force dial to “0” before balancing the tonearm and make sure the tonearm is kept in its armrest before proceeding with these adjustments.

Operation The motor of the record player is electronically controlled by the connected PS 800 unit (Fig. 6). The toggle switch on the right is for selecting the speed whereby two speeds are available: 33 ⅓ rpm for long playing records and 45 rpm for singles. The toggle switch on the left labelled ON/ OFF is to start or stop the motor. For playing a record the turntable is first started with the desired speed. Then lift the tonearm by slowly pushing the lift lever up and back. Release the tonearm from its rest and position it above the lead-in groove or above the desired piece/track to be played. Slowly bring the lift lever to the down-position whereupon the tonearm is smoothly descending. Fig. 6 This record player does not feature any automatic end-ofrecord shut-off facility. Therefore, as soon as the stylus has reached the lead-out groove, the tonearm is to be lifted up manually by the lever and the motor switched off.

Maintenance and Care Your record player requires no particular maintenance. If over the time dust has collected on the plinth you can wipe it off with a moistened cloth. Hint: A pre-moistened cleaning tissue for glasses is a very good choice for doing this. ATTENTION: Do not use paper tissue or any coarse-fibred cloth because they may leave scratches on the rather sensitive acryl surface. Also refrain from using a dry cloth for cleaning because this will in any case generate undesired static charges. The Thorens precision belt should be exchanged at least every other year. If the record player is not in use for a longer time, it is advisable to remove the belt in order to prevent a premature ageing under tension. If the record player is frequently in use it is recommended to have the bearing checked and lubrication renewed after about 5 years.

Speed Speed change Platter Tonearm (standard) Anti-skating Automatic functions Automatic shut-off Capacity of leads Voltage/Power supply Dimensions (WxDxH) Weight Technical modifications subject to change. Handmade in Germany

Service Information Your Thorens dealer or distribution partner shall be pleased to assist you in the event that you have any further queries or need additional information concerning Thorens products. You may contact Thorens also directly: Thorens Export Company Ltd. Im Huebel 1, CH-4304 Giebenach, Switzerland www.thorens.com, info@thorens.com In case of warranty claims you are kindly requested to first contact your Thorens dealer or distributor. Further information may also be obtained from: www.thorens.com