Thorens - TAS 1600 MC Phono Cartridge

The moving coil Thorens developed specifically for the TD 1600 and TD 1601: solid boron cantilever, Special Line Contact stylus, 0.4mV from a 12Ω source.

Thorens designed this cartridge around their own turntables, and the pairing is the point. The TD 1600 and TD 1601 carry the TP 160 arm, and a cartridge chosen by the same people who chose the arm’s effective mass is starting from a better place than one picked off a chart.

The cantilever is solid boron — a drawn rod, not a tube or a coated aluminium core. Stiffness relative to mass is what a cantilever is judged on, because any flex or resonance in it is motion the stylus did not make and the coils will faithfully turn into signal anyway. Boron is among the best materials available for that job.

The stylus is a Special Line Contact profile, which is a step up from the Microlinear fitted to the TAS 1500 beneath it. Line-contact geometries present a long narrow contact patch that mirrors the shape of the original cutting stylus, so they read more of the high-frequency detail in the groove, distribute tracking force over more wall area, and last longer than a rounder tip.

Output is 0.4mV at 5.5cm/s from 12Ω, which is low-output moving coil territory. Load above 100 ohms, and plan on a moving-coil phono stage or a step-up transformer — Thorens’ own MC 1600 will do it, with gain adjustable from 32 to 68dB in 4dB steps and impedance settable from 20 to 1,280 ohms.

As with the TAS 1500, Thorens publishes very little beyond the headline figures. The datasheet linked from the product page does not resolve to an actual document, so frequency response, channel separation, compliance and tracking force are simply not published. Every one of those figures is identical to the TAS 1500’s where Thorens does publish them, but we have not assumed the unpublished ones match. Ask us if you need them and we will chase the distributor.

Features

• Developed specifically for the Thorens TD 1600 and TD 1601
• Low-output moving coil, 0.4mV at 5.5cm/s
• Solid boron cantilever
• Special Line Contact diamond stylus — a step above the TAS 1500’s Microlinear
• 12Ω internal impedance; load above 100Ω
• 8.2g cartridge weight

Specifications

• Type: Moving coil, low output
• Developed for: The Thorens TD 1600 and TD 1601, stated on Thorens’ own product page
• Output voltage: 0.4mV at 5.5cm/s
• Internal impedance: 12Ω
• Inductance: Not published
• Recommended load impedance: Greater than 100Ω
• Recommended load capacitance: Not published
• Frequency response: Not published
• Channel separation: Not published
• Channel balance: Not published
• Stylus: Special Line Contact diamond. Tip dimensions are not published
• Cantilever material: Solid boron
• Coil former, coil wire and magnet material: Not published
• Compliance: Not published
• Tracking force: Not published
• Weight: 8.2g
• How it differs from the TAS 1500: On Thorens’ published figures, the only stated difference is the stylus profile: Special Line Contact here against Microlinear on the TAS 1500. Output, internal impedance, recommended load, cantilever material and weight are identical. Thorens also states this model was developed specifically for the TD 1600 and TD 1601, and makes no equivalent claim for the TAS 1500
• A note on the published data: The datasheet linked from Thorens’ product page does not resolve to an actual document. The fields marked not published above are genuinely absent from Thorens’ materials, and we have not assumed they match the TAS 1500’s
• Country of manufacture: Not published. Thorens prints no country-of-manufacture statement for this product — only the company address in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, which is a registered office and not a factory.