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Logo or not Logo

 

There have been many times over the past several years where my customers have asked me, after they have received their turntable, why there isn’t a Vinyl Nirvana logo or name plate placed somewhere on the table. There was actually a brief period where I had some plates made and I used to put one on the back of a custom unit…when I remembered. I may have ordered 3 or 4 dozen nameplates, but years later, there is still a one inch stack resting in a small dusty bin.

Somewhere along the way, rather unconsciously, I knew the Thorens logo meant much more than the Vinyl Nirvana one ever would. I am not a turntable designer. I have no engineering degree. Physics is a struggle for this former English teacher. However, I always loved music. And I always loved turntables, from a crazy young age. To me, even to this day, it’s more magical than mathematical. More emotional than rational. However, I’m no fool. I know that the legacy of these wonderful turntables rests on design principles based in math and science, and also the dedication of craftsmen to deliver a product of the highest caliber based on those designs.

At this point, having worked twenty years on Thorens turntables, I can say I am still just as much in awe of the design and the machining as the first time I set one up in my listening room.  Probably even more. No matter what customizing I have undertaken on any given Thorens unit, the heart is and always will be a Thorens. And I know the core of that is their design and machining. I’m a torchbearer for something larger, and hopefully in future decades, other Thorens torchbearers will follow.