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History - Thorens New Reference

Thorens - a long history of music reproduction

The story begins in 1883 in Ste Croix in the Swiss Jura, when Hermann Thorens had the company entered in the commercial register. The purpose of the company was to manufacture music boxes and musical works.

THE FIRST 60 YEARS

At the beginning of the 20th century, the first rollers phonographs were produced, followed a few years later by gramophones, which remained in the range for several decades until they were replaced by turntables. In the meantime there are also harmonicas and lighters from the factory in Ste Croix.

In 1928, the first electric motor for gramophones was introduced, followed a year later by a magnetic pickup. In addition there were newly developed tonearms, even according to the tangential principle, which at that time were far ahead of their time.

The era of record players

The era of record players

In 1957, the era of record players begins, leading the Thorens brand to world fame.

Throughout the company's history, Thorens has developed a number of devices that have become milestones in the history of consumer electronics.

The first

The first
Thorens Reference

In 1980, Thorens decided, regardless of cost, to develop and market an ultimative turntable. The result was called Thorens Reference, weighed 90 kg, was designed for up to three tonearms and had a tunable subchassis! Externally, the Reference looked like any kind of mass drive, in which simply a heavy platter is placed on an even heavier framework and smoothness is generated solely by mass. But the Reference was different, the design was much smarter. Simply, that it had a subchassis and the platter weighed only 6 kg, makes it unique. The model was made on request in an official edition of 100 pieces, customers could choose individual color combinations and order individual tonearms. The price was exorbitantly high at almost 18,000 DM just for the turntable but is now significantly surpassed for used devices.

New Reference: our standard for the next 40 years

Good record players are timeless. Nevertheless, 40 years later, the time has now come for the New Reference, which is intended to serve as the benchmark for our product developments over the next few decades. Even though it invokes the design features of its predecessor at some points, the New Reference is an entirely new design, for which even the basic components such as the disk bearing have been reimagined, recalculated, and redesigned. 

The old Reference was already a very heavy player, but it did not rely on its mass alone; instead, the platter and arm floated on a spring-mounted sub-chassis which was damped precisely. We have remained true to this fundamental principle. Yet we are implementing it today with a technology that would have sounded like science fiction 40 years ago, with New Reference being the only record player in the world to use a customized and fully active vibration isolation system from the German specialist Seismion.

Active isolation was developed to keep highly sensitive measuring equipment in science and industry clear of mechanical interference. A central control unit processes the signals from numerous motion sensors, and uses precisely measured counterforces to compensate even the slightest mechanical interference. It is a contactless system that is self-leveling to an accuracy of 20 micrometers. The suspension reaches its full effect from just one Hertz, with external mechanical influences no longer able to penetrate the subchassis, as if this were suspended directly from the sky on invisible ropes. This is why the technology used here is also known as the skyhook principle, i.e. a virtual hook in the sky.

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