It looks great and I am sure it sounds better. It’s an interesting brand that I have not heard.
A local-ish dealer carries Thales turntables. A friend and I went, as he is thinking of buying a high end turntable- at the moment he is getting by with my spare LP12.
We had my LP12 (Stiletto, Keel, Karousel, Ekos 1, Kleos, Radikal, Superline) as a starting point. We also heard a Vertere MG-1 with a broadly comparable total package cost. We told the dealer all that, and he was happy to leave Thales out and play us a Brinkmann Bardo instead (with a long arm and a really expensive phono stage being the most notable additions).
Even in Stiletto form, my LP12 is still an LP12. At the margin, it was no surprise that it won on boogie and lost on ultimate slam and tonal purity - the Brinkmann won on the latter bits while being a bit less fun and a bit less intimate (SME-like if vague memory serves). The MG-1 was between the 2 in most respects - it was very good as auditioned and changing some of the supporting cast would have made it even better.
Have you compared the Thales to any of those, and would one need to go that far up their range to hear what the brand can really do?
I had one of these back in the daze when I didn’t know much - the transport screw had the suspension locked down… I thought it sounded terrible, and never understood why until I’d moved it on…what a cool deck…
Hi
Obviously loads off great turntables out there these days, and everyone will have it’s own style, and way.
I had a SME 20 with a v arm, and dynavector drt xv-1t cartridge before, i was going to go for either the 20 with a 12 inch v arm or the 30.
I found the sme’s to sound more heavy, and not as likely, still very nice but quite different to what i have. Also they are getting quite large, and not the nicest thing to look at sitting on the top off the rack.
Never tried a brinkmann, but i believe they are good.
Vertere certainly sounded more like mine compared to the sme.
But i really wanted a 12 inch arm, but i didn’t really like the size off the turntable need for this, the way the thales tonearms work gives you all the best things of pivot arm, with the tracking of a linner arm but with out the problems these have.
I also like the quality of it all, built by a clock make, and it certainly shows. But it was the simplicity arm that first got my attention.
They are certainly worth trying, and as i said they get very good reviews, one compared the way it sounded to the airforce 1 turntable but in a much smaller package.
As you leave in New Zealand, perhaps you can look at the Wand turntable designed in your country sweetie.
It has received a lot of praise and very good reviews. A new one costs 6700 AUS dollars.
Interesting. What sort of things??. I have a Goldring e3, not as good as my Hana SL, but it does some things better imho. Thinking of trying the e4 stylus upgrade.
@Dunc Interesting set up with the second arm pod - just curious… I take it that the Rega arm pod sits independently from the main turntable structure, so what happens if either the arm pod or the turntable are accidentally nudged or moved, do you have to set up the cartridge alignment from scratch?
Here’s a thread all about it. I remember being interested at the time so knew there was a thread, I don’t want to answer for Dunc though cc @akohli too
A few TT setups use a similar approach IIRC. In fact I’m pretty sure there’s someone on here with a similar concept applied to some Technics hardware
The pod is rather heavy as i filled the 63mm copper pipe with Moulton lead, plus being on 3 spikes helps it to stay put.
The turntable is 25kg plus, so that’s not moving anywhere, but both are very stable.
You can buy standalone tonearm pods that are basically like what i have made, but they tend to cost about £500. I didn’t fancy that as i had a £1000 limit for the tonearm, cartridge, and pod.
Luckily i am quite handy and made this up one afternoon, downloaded the tonearm template for free, and just set it up.
It seems to work fine as it sounds good.
Ah, I see, so it is wholly separate from the turntable. Interesting, and not surprising you made your own given the price of the stand alone pods.
There are quite a few decks with the facility for separate arm boards which give a little more flexibility for experimenting with alternative arms and carts and I do find that interesting. The Kuzma range look fascinating from this perspective, especially with their own range of arms. A loaded Kuzma Stabi R at Definitive Audio here for instance - other colours available, although I quite like the burnt orange…
One of the reasons I chose the Kuzma Stabi R, might add a second arm in the future.
The picture shows a „wing“ on the left side, smaller arm holders would be available.
The Stabi R can hold up to four tonearms, though this might look a bit cluttered.
Thought I’d updated with the new version of the armpod which is much much heavier, but can’t see it so here’s the mk2 version. Its made from a solid block of mild steel 100mm diameter, with a top-plate made of 2 and 6mm mild steel pieces sandwiching a 1mm piece of rubber, all set on 18mm birch ply and then feet to match the turntable. Neither piece is going anywhere, but it is true that if either does get moved then you have to set it up from scratch.
cc 
