This article was
available within a free download in
2008 here: http://www.thorens.com/pdf/thorens-phono-0108.pdf
When is a man or woman in their prime?
Most people believe it comes when you
leave
the confusion of youth behind, when
you‘ve endured
some major challenges and it‘s time to
reap the rewards. In Thorens‘ case, the
analogy
fits the bill. There isn‘t an older
company out
there
in the field of entertainment
electronics. Thorens
holds every record; yet even today it‘s
constantly
introducing new innovations. You‘re as
young as
your LPs – and LPs are younger than
ever. Thanks
to perfected craftsmanship, they‘ve even
managed
to survive the ultimate enemy, the CD.
The story begins in a small town in the
Swiss
canton of Jura. Sainte Croix is situated
on a
barren
mountainside where people live from
farming
and, during the long winter months,
building fine
mechanical gadgets. It is the home of
Swiss
watchmaking
tradition, and it is where Hermann
Thorens
made the courageous decision to set up a
company
in 1883 – a company making music boxes.
It
was a small step for an entrepreneur but
a giant
leap for technological innovation:
through the
years,
over 50 million music boxes left Sainte
Croix to
find homes in every corner of the world.
Toys store
were the main customers, and when
Thorens decided
to include phonographs in its 1902
catalogue,
it caused quite a stir. This unusual
construct was
originally designed by the American
inventor Thomas
Alva Edison, based on the same technical
idea
as the famous music boxes coming out of
a rotating tinfoil sheet cylinder
mechanism
that picked up and emitted sound. Next,
Thorens
was quick to recognise the benefits of a
certain
innovation
by Emil Berliner from
the modern lateral-cut disc, which played
on its sides. It was more robust than
Edison‘s
format
and also much simpler to replicate,
following
the same principles as book printing.
Thorens became the most authoritative
gramophone
manufacturer and court purveyor far and
wide. The initial models were called
“Helvetica”,
“Primaphono”, “Popular” and “Splendid”.
What
started out as a toy thus transformed
into a
mechanical
marvel reaching customers in every income
bracket. And Thorens was not the only one
to benefit. As the driving force behind
technological
progress the company introduced, in
1928, the
first turntable with an electric motor
drive,
followed
by the first tangential tone arm.
Thorens also
engineered a cutter for record
production and
equipped cinemas with professional
record players.
What is far less known, however, is that
between
1913 and 1964 Thorens also manufactured
more
than 5 million pocket lighters to help
establish
the
Thorens identity worldwide. How did
Thorens become
“the phono company” – the authority that
caters
to millions of vinyl aficionados? It was
thanks
to the legendary stereo turntables which
Thorens
began placing in people‘s homes as of
the mid 60s.
Thorens quickly gained a reputation as
the company
that puts the spice in the groove, while
assuring
a robust and dependable product. In
1965, the TD
150 was the first HiFi turntable based
on a Thorens
oscillating chassis. The unique
decoupling
mechanism
of the 3.4-kilo turntable and the double
synchronic
motor set the standards for the entire
sector.
The engineers working at Thorens had
built a
winner, and what made the company so
popular
during the years that followed was its
unshakable
loyalty to its high quality philosophy –
throughout
all price categories.
The press never ceased to be impressed
and share
their enthusiasm with the world. The TD
126 MkII
became known as the very best of its
kind. When
Thorens built the “Reference” – a 90
kilo,
hand-crafted
record player – the company fulfilled a
limited
edition dream for 100 special customers.
The “Prestige”
was released soon thereafter. Weighing
‚only‘
55 kilos, it was markedly successful for
the luxury
record player that it was; by 1995, over
700 units
had been shipped around the world, and
the price
tag back then was a stout 15,000
Deutsche Mark.
In the same tradition, the “Jubilee” is
scheduled
to
hit the market in 2008 and celebrate the
company‘s
125th
anniversary.
