Thorens TD 124 DD
In 1957, Switzerland-based Thorens introduced the TD 124 turntable, a record player destined to become a classic. (TD is an initialism for tourne disque, French for turntable.)
A Thorens brochure from that same year itemized the TD 124’s “11 main elements that result in 41 advantages.” It noted the turntable’s “strongly ribbed, solid chassis, crafted in cast aluminum,” and its two-part platter including a “flywheel [subplatter], crafted in stabilized cast iron, [which] possesses excellent characteristics for the magnetic shielding of the drive system, as well as great inertia.” Continuing, it lauded the TD 124’s “main bearing, fitted with a 14mm spindle made of hardened, mirror-polished steel,” its braking system, leveling dials, surface-mounted spirit level, and four “mushroom-shaped, rubber dampers [that] guarantee smooth suspension in a built-in frame as well as decoupling from the base.”1
Between 1957 and 1967, Thorens manufactured more than 90,0002 TD 124s. In 1961, the TD 124 sold for $99.95, just under $900 in today’s dollars.
Even today, alongside the Garrard 301, the Thorens TD 124 remains highly desirable—one of the most sought-after vintage turntables in hi-fi.3 For its fans, it’s the gold standard of vinyl-spinning machines, overbuilt to meet the demands of radio stations, recording studios, and audiophiles.
That last group includes this writer, Stereophile Editor Jim Austin, and it included the late Stereophile deputy editor Art Dudley, who owned both Thorens TD 124 and Garrard 301 turntables when he passed in April 2020. (He previously owned two TD 124s. He gave one of them to me.)
Today, Thorens is owned by former Denon manager and ELAC CEO Gunter Kürten. The company’s turntables are designed in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, by the team of Kürten; Helmut Thiele, Thorens’s
