Thorens TD-145C
The TD-145C was Thorens's semi-automatic belt-drive single-play turntable in the mid-1970s. It ran at 33/45 rpm and had an integrated tonearm, a wood base and a dust cover. Elpa Marketing, then the US importer, listed it at $299.95 in 1975 (High Fidelity, July 1975, p.30).
The main feature was an electronic sensing system. It detected rapid arm motion at the leadout groove, or the arm being knocked out of position, then raised the tonearm and shut off the motor. Thorens's own introduction in Audio (July 1975, p.15) touted it as the world's only turntable with electronic sensing for automatic arm lift and shutoff around that time. The rest is classic Thorens of the period. There is a 16-pole synchronous motor in a belt-drive arrangement (High Fidelity, January 1976, p.85) and a split-level suspension meant to cut rumble and acoustic feedback. You also get a front-panel precision cueing control, a magnetic antiskating device, and a dynamically balanced seven-pound, 12-inch non-magnetic die-cast platter. The base measures 17 by 13.5 inches and stands about 7.75 inches high with the dust cover. Thorens spec'd the platter up to speed in about 1.5 seconds.
On the test bench, Audio (March 1976, p.60) measured flutter at a very low 0.05% (DIN 45507) and rumble at −65 dB (RRLL weighting). That was one of the lowest figures the magazine had yet encountered. The stylus force dial calibrated accurately within 5%. Arm resonance with a Shure cartridge sat at 8 Hz with a modest 3.5 dB rise, and the cue lift worked easily and smoothly. The one criticism is that after automatic shutoff the arm does not return to its rest position. That is a minor quirk, not a functional complaint.
Documentation on the TD-145C is thin beyond those period accounts. Most of what survives is this set of announcements and reviews.
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