An Evening at Joel's

Thorens TD 111 - Two Ebay Auctions

A few weeks ago, I sold a fine Thorens TD 111 to Gerald in France. Here are a few photos:

Then, after my sale to Gerald was completed, another 111 went up for sale on Ebay. This one was very special. It appeared to be a new-in-the-box original TD111. These turntables date from the early to mid-sixties and not much information is available on the web. By my estimate, about ten per year are sold via US sellers on Ebay.

Gerald and I discovered an odd quirk of Ebay: If the U.S. seller does not offer international shipping, the auction cannot be viewed overseas. Let that little fact detonate inside your brains, ebay sellers. This beautiful, mint-in-the-box Thorens TD111 brought $820 from a U.S. buyer. How much would it have sold for if it had been available to overseas bidders? Especially bidders from Asia? My guess: $1,500 or more. Any U.S. seller who does not offer overseas shipping is, simply, a fool.

Here, for the benefit of Gerald in Haute Normandy, are screen-shots of the completed ebay auction #370767769679.

The State of My Ears

Is not good. Online ear-checker websites have me hearing up to about 12,000hz. After that, silence. My sense of directionality has completely left the building. When the cellphone rings in the early morning, I cannot tell if it is under my pillow or in my pants' pocket across the room. Fifty-eight years of careless listening has caught up with me. Still I listen to music. Records, mostly; played on vintage equipment. I like the look and feel of a record album and the sound of the needle hitting the lead-in groove. Restoring and using the equipment that was in use at the time the record was made is satisfying to me. CDs and MP3s are fine but records are my meat. Skeptical of the breathless claims of the audiophile religion, I am an audio agnostic. But nice gear is... nice. So, I collect some of the more affordable old stuff and sell it and learn what I can about it. This blog is about sharing the little knowledge I have gleaned. Hyperbole will be left to others with better hearing. Mostly I want to share some data on Radio Craftsmen amplifiers and Rek-O-Kut turntables. Stay tuned.

In the meantime here is a video of a Wilhelm Furtwangler Beethoven 9th. This is a rare shaded-dog record that belonged to my friend, Steve Estes. We made the recording to assist an Ebay sale. A collector in Japan - naturally - bought the record.

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Equipment? A Rek-O-Kut K-33H belt-drive turntable with Papst motor. The turntable is mounted in a circular pine table-top purchased at Lowe's. The pine was finished by the extraordinary Baltimore decorative painter, Nikki Smith. The deck has three sharp brass cones digging into a piece of heavy oak flooring picked up at a salvage yard. The oak, in turn, has three sorbothane pods between the wood and the floor. Is all of this stuff worth the trouble? Beats me. The tonearm is a Japanese Grace 140-S, branded Herald RP-155. These tonearms are highly touted by the well-known violinist and audiophile, Joseph Esmilla. They are clones of the American-made Gray Research tonearms, widely used in radio stations during the fifties and sixties. The tonearm's unipivot design is heavily damped by a ball and socket suspension that is lubricated by heavy silicone fluid.