A plinth by Lichtendonk HOUT
Introduction.
A few years ago I traded a Thorens 121 for an amplifier. A quite handy record player to travel with,
despite it can only play 33rpm records. It has accompanied me to various ETF's and other happenings.
The 121 has a black plinth, made from medium density fibreboard, or MDF. It looks smart and does the
job okay as the 121 itself sort of floats on rubber mushrooms.
It came with a TP16 tonearm, in pristine condition, including the armlift control at the front of
the original armboard. That TP16 is a more than average tonearm when in good condition fitted with the
right cartridge. As matter as fact I took it with me to ETF.25 with an Elac STS222 installed and that
combo stood up against all off the exclusive stuff present there.
Thorens TD121 with TP16 tonearm and Elac STS22 at ETF.25..
Also a few years ago I was given the opportunity to buy a 12" tonearm by Darius Valiunas from Lithuania.
Most people know him for his field coil cartridges, the desirable Dava cartridges. The Trotter
tonearm is in fact a remake of one of the early heavy tonearms by Gray. Where the Gray was made of
aluminium the Trotter was made out of wood, Purple Heart in my case. It is a perfect match for the
Dava cartridge as it has no armlift thus needs a steady hand or a robust cartridge, which the Dava is.
As I was very curious at that time the Trotter was installed on the big Wilking which was a bit
unhandy since there is no support for the hand when moving the tonearm above the record and lowering
it to the record. At that time I bought a 12" Korian armboard for the 121 and took it with me to ETF.20in21
in Bellême in France where it was used with the older Dava Ref..
TD121 with Trotter and older Dava Ref in Bellême..
Lichtendonk Hout
A few months ago I stumbled upon an ad for bespoke made plinths following original design for
Thorens and more turntables. Image below is taken from his website and you can see the massive
walnut plinths following the original Thorens design, with slightly sloped sides. Very elegant
looking!
Taken from the Lichtendonk HOUT website.
I use walnut for my amplifier chassis so that would be a perfect match. I contacted Karel and asked
for a quote on a plinth for the 121 including an armboard. Price was fair, around 400€ so I
ordered one. As the Trotter is made from purple heart I asked for a second armboard made of that
as well. In the end a 9" walnut armboard completed the order. As it is bespoke a delivery time of
around 4 weeks applied before it was ready. In between we had some email exchange about exact
spindle to pivot distances and some updates on progress. Total price of the plinth and three armboards
was around 725€. That is all unfinished as I would do that myself for optimal match to the
amplifier chassis. When everything was ready I went over to the workshop to get acquainted with
Karel and collect it all. The workshop is a so called shared workshop and Karel is only active one
day a week for Lichtendonk HOUT. He just recently succeeded for his furniture maker course and likes
the diversification in occupation. On request he can finish the wood in wax or some other
finish and can install feet and RCA-sockets and power inlet as well, on customer specification.
All in all a perfect address for a bespoke made plinth and armboard for acceptable money..
The Danish oil finished plinth with 12" armboard and Dava Trotter tonearm!
Below some random pictures of the manufacturing process and workshop.