Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free!

This is a Thorens Reference turntable, which went into production in 1979. The Reference tipped the scales at roughly 180 lbs. It's hard to believe that they were building turntables like this nearly 30 years ago!

Recently I came into a vintage turntable and tonearm that will need some restoration. Not the Thorens Reference pictured above, but something really special none the less. So the search for free resources on the internet has begun. The Analog Dept. and Vnyl Engine both have lots of free owners manuals and other information on turntables and tonearms from years gone by. Most of the restoration work will be done by other because of the delicacy of the tasks and the knowledge necessary. I will try to document the process with photos as it progresses.

I do believe a little housekeeping is in order.

Lately my system has started to sound a bit dull on the top end, dynamics had become a bit lacking, a bit slow, and the bass a bit tubby. I was having to turn the system up louder than usual to get it to spring to life. This is particularly odd because one of the strengths of my system is that it usually performs equally well regardless of volume. After trying a couple of other things to clean up the sound of the system it dawned on me that the Martin Logan CLS speakers hadn't been vacuumed in months. The head of Martin Logan's service department recommends that the electrostatic panels of ALL of their models be vacuumed roughly twice a year. Being a bit of an obsessive compulsive audio geek it usually gets done monthly. The past couple of months it hasn't gotten done. WOW, a quick vacuuming of these speakers does work wonders! The bass is again articulate, with great pitch definition. Drums have regained their dynamic snap. The high frequencies have also come out to play as well. The detail in tambourines is remarkable.


The vacuum that I use for this purpose (Yes I use a specific vacuum, sue me) is very similar to one that Target is offering on line. Click on the picture if you are interested in purchasing one. It is extremely affordable at less than $30. For electrostatic speaker owners this very well might be the best $30 tweak out there.