THORENS concrete (1988) | Hi-Fi on the Rocks

 

The legendary "Concrete drive" was the work of a young designer from Switzerland. Modelled after the basic shape of a record, the "Concrete" not only wowed visually, it also offered a convincing technical performance. The base made of concrete and the leaf-sprung sub chassis carved out of an aluminum block damped impact sound and vibrations. This audiophile sculpture was mainly equipped with the SME 3009 S2 tonearm. Another special feature: the 2.7 kg platter made of mineral glass. It is driven by the 24-pole synchronous motor known from the 300 series to a 1.5 kg aluminum sub-platter. It is electronically based on the TD 320 / TD 520 series with a concrete base and it's a great sounding turntable. It was built in limited numbers, approximately 200 to 350 units.

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Thorens Prestige (1983) | Non Plus Ultra

 

THORENS turntables are famous throughout the world for their excellent sound quality. For its 100th birthday, Thorens created another monument with the "Prestige" the result of both step-by-step refinement of proven solutions and a commitment to a tradition based product philosophy. It was first presented to an astonished audience at the Berlin radio exhibition in 1983. This is a no compromise transcription turntable of the highest order without gadgets where the emphasis is placed on sound quality. Obviously the PRESTIGE incorporates the renowned THORENS belt drive/floating chassis system. The servo controlled two-phase synchronous motor, rigidly mounted on the main fixed chassis, drives the turntable by means of a long soft rubber belt. Possible motor vibrations are thus isolated from the turntable and also from the two tone-arms on the suspended chassis. The mass of the turntable (over 8 kg including the center stabilizer) accounts for the absence of any wow and flutter. The large turntable (diameter 340 mm, height 100 mm) is absolutely resonance free and contributes. in a decisive manner to the stability of the sound image of the PRESTIGE. The outer wall of the turntable is filled with iron granules, thus preventing any resonance of the casting material. A truly unique THORENS solution. The turntable shaft is a very substantial 15 mm diameter precision machined component rotating wear free in an oil bath. Both the main fixed chassis and the floating chassis are constructed using multiple layer technology designed to eliminate undesirable resonances. All controls are located on the fixed front panel, the floating chassis supporting the turntable and the tone-arms decoupled by means of four point gravity controlled suspension. Two large arm mounting platforms enable almost any tone arm to be used. The height of each mounting platform can be separately adjusted and each tone arm has its own electrically operated cueing device with front panel mounted lift/lower control. The nominal speeds are quartz controlled and constantly monitored on the turntable itself. The underside of the platter bears a magnetic track. A meander conductive track forms the counter part to the tachogenerator, and an electronic control circuit compares the rotational speed of the platter with the nominal speed. The slightest deviations are registered and corrected. Measurement data alone does not determine the final sound quality of a turntable. Whether this initial link in a system produces ultimate sound quality or not depends on the precise selection of suitable materials, on individual tuning, and subsequent harmonisation of all component parts. The PRESTIGE makes use of noble materials only, including a number of Gold plated parts. A true durable realisation of the PRESTIGE. THORENS have built quality turntable since the invention of the record itself. 

Technical Data 

Drive system: 1 speed belt drive

Motor: 16 pole 2 phase synchronous motor

Speeds: 33 1/3, 45, 78 RPM 

Motor speed control: quartz controlled electronic 2 phase generator 

Pitch control: ≥6%

Turntable platter: 8.1 kg complete with mat and goldweight  

Platter diameter: 34 cm 

Wow and Flutter according to DIN 45507: ≤0.02% 

Rumble unweighted according to DIN 45 539: >54 

Rumble weighted: >700B

Power requirements: 2x19V-200 mA 

Mains voltage: may be connected to any line voltage using the appropriate THORENS AC adapter 

Dimensions: 612×510×280mm 

Weight: 55 kg 

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Thorens AT-410 (1976)

The AT-410 stereo receiver was introduced by Thorens in 1976. The close proximity of the many European stereo stations places particularly high demands on hi-fi receivers. In order to meet these requirements, the THORENS AT 410 hi-fi receiver was developed in Europe for Europe. The best selectivity, high overload resistance and extreme sensitivity are the characteristics of these top devices. With the AT 410 receiver, 12 program sources can be selected without any annoying cracking or noise. Thanks to a very complex electronic muting system, no background noise occurs when switching the devices on and off. 5 FM transmitters and 2 medium wave transmitters can be preset on the AT 410 receiver. The AT 410 features the following tone controls: bass, treble, balance, loudness, presence 1 and 2, filter 1 and 2, low cut, muting. The sockets are all DIN standard and there are two tape inputs, one phono input, two loudspeaker pair output and pre-amplifier output. Power output: 65W/ch Sinus DIN 4ohm | Size: 45x15,5x39,5 cm | Weight: 12,5kg | Original sale price 998DM.

THORENS PC 650 (M) (1979) - The Unknown Warrior

This is a rare 3 Head cassette deck introduced in 1979 by THORENS, the Swiss company famous for their turntables. The deck was available with both silver and black front panel but no matching (in design) amplifier or tuner was available. The PC 650 is a pretty standard model with full logic controlled two motor belt drive mechanism and 3 head configuration capable of handling Normal, Chrome and FeCr tapes. With the introduction of PC 650 M the Metal tape capability replaced the FeCr tape setting of the previous model and a ALPS head were introduced. This model went as quickly as it came, due to mainly high price and competition from Japanese manufacturers. Actually the deck was built by SCHNEIDER (a very innovative company but known for medium quality products) from Germany who had a similar looking deck in their range, but that was an autoreverse model. This makes the THORENS PC 650 the "First 3 head deck Made in Germany"

3 HEAD cassette deck rarities

In this article we take a closer look to some of the rarest 3 head cassette recorders. They were either market specific models or were only made in low numbers so they hardly ever show up for sale on the second hand market.

First in this line-up is the OPTONICA RT-9100H. Optonica was a brand name used by SHARP for their high-end audio gear. This model is not necessarily rare but is definitely one of the less known 3 head recorders....with 4 head. Yes it is a genuine 3 head recorder with monitor function however there was a 4th head that recorded signals to the tape for a sophisticated music search system. It was available as OPTONICA RT-9 in Japan, OPTONICA RT-9100 the rest of the world, while the black version was OPTONICA RT-6905 that came with an additional programable timer unit.

OPTONICA RT-9100H

OPTONICA RT-6905

OPTONICA RT-9

The next model is from Austria and it was made by eumig (Elektrizitats Und Metallwaren Industrie Gesellschaft mbH. in Wien). Before eumig became known with their version of a rebadged Alpine, the eumig FL-900 or the famous eumig FL-1000 they made this 3 head model called the eumig Metropolitan CCD. Released in 1977 this cassette deck uses heads from WOELKE (Germany) mounted on a full die-cast chasis. Instead of the usual rec/playback sandwich head this model uses an independent playback head while the recording head is sandwitched together with the erase head and there is azimuth control for the recording head.

eumig METROPOLITAN CCD

Moving to the next model there's a 3 head cassette deck from a turntable specialist. This is the Lenco C 2003 Direct Drive dual capstan 3 independent head cassette deck from Switzerland. (699 USD 1977)

Lenco C 2003

Talking about turntable specialist, here's the one and only Thorens PC-650 3 head cassette recorder from 1979.

Thorens PC 650

Part of the slimline 777 system from SIEMENS this is the SIEMENS RC 777, a 3 head cassette deck with Sendust heads. This deck could be sourced from SANYO as the smaller SIEMENS 666 system uses rebadged SANYO units. 

SIEMENS RC 777

Another 3 head cassette deck is the ITT HiFi 8025 from 1979 (more detail here)

ITT HiFi 8025

Last but not least here's a 3 head cassette deck from the former communist block. This is the UNITRA MDS 625 from Poland, a deck with dual capstan mechanism, 3 ferrite heads and dual speed (4,75 and 9,5 cm/s)

UNITRA MDS 625

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