Connect Thorens TD 150 MkII (no pre-amp) Turntable to Sonos system

Cartridge installation affects the sound quality significantly. With respect to “vintage”, cartridges degrade due to age. This is a separate issue from stylus wear.

Sound quality can be excellent with a good cartridge and proper setup. Cheap cartridges need not apply. Only you know what sounds “best” (to you).

IIRC, Sonos themselves sell products originally manufactured by Pro-ject, so one option would simply be to source one of their phono amplifiers - though you will need to decide on a budget, as their products seem to vary in price from under £100 to around £400.

But pretty much any phono stage should do the job. You will inevitably get differences in sound because of the different ways in which manufacturers implement RIAA equalisation. In reality it’s more down to what you like the sound of than anything else.

In principle there’s no reason why a well-maintained “vintage” turntable should sound any different than it did when it was new.  But be warned - replacement cartridges and stylii used to be fairly cheap items, but you won’t find many cheap ones these days!

Do verify your cartridge type, MC or MM and get a matching pre-amp, or one that is switchable.

As said, vintage isn’t so much an issue as original quality is. A “rubber roller on the motor shaft, touching the turntable rim” design is going to sound bad (wow and flutter) and may have a poor cartridge and possibly a poor or poorly set up tonearm.

I’d still go for it, maybe Amazon UK for the preamp so it is easily returnable if there are issues.

A decent modern turntable isn’t expensive but as you go up in quality the price climbs too.

I wouldn’t say no to something like this Denon DP-29F for under $200 complete, just add an audio cable. It also is likely to be kinder (less wear) to your vinyl collection.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_033DP29F/Denon-DP-29F.html

Why would it cause less wear?

I guess a more recent cartridge is likely to be a bit more compliant?

But the Thorens TD150ii is a very very good turntable - very well known in Europe and Thorens was used by a lot of broadcasters (inc. the BBC, I believe). I certainly wouldn’t choose a modern Denon over a vintage Thorens!

I’m assuming you have the TD 150 MkII AB that included the tonearm and base.

Mainly the auto stop and return so the stylus isn’t left looping on the inner grooves if you are distracted and don’t manually lift it.

The auto start, maybe, it depends on how good the lift/lower on the TD still is.

A bit on the old string and weight skating compensation (if it hangs up) as it can be quite finicky, note that this bottom of the line Denon doesn’t have that adjustment.

The cartridge might be an issue, stylus wear, tracking weight and stylus shape all come into play. Wear should be your first worry and checked before playing anything with it.

Compliance might be an issue as mentioned, more age related than by design, as the suspension could have stiffened, or worse sagged and not allowing free stylus movement in the groove.

Couldn’t find an English spec sheet to compare the numbers on the two for noise and wow/flutter but it would be interesting to see.

Nice manual with some very necessary details: https://theanalogdept.com/images/spp6-pics/TT%20manuals/Thorens/TD150MKII_manual/Thorens%20TD150mkII.pdf

I wouldn’t be unhappy with a vintage turntable myself but I’d certainly aim at a bit newer and higher specifications. A shiny new cartridge would be a must though. Both for the improved sound and lowered wear on my media. If I hadn’t given up my extensive collection I’d be tempted to get a replacement for my old SL-1100.

https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_reviews.php?make=Technics&model=SL-1100

Compliance must match the mass of the arm, else the arm-cartridge resonance will be in the wrong frequency range. It’s similar to car tires. If stiffness is wrong for the car mass and suspension, the driver will have poor control.