Phono cable thread

bonzo75

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Feb 26, 2014
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Since we have a signal cable thread, a power cable thread, and even an USB cable thread running simultaneously, I thought phono cables were feeling left out.

Can you please note down your experiences where you found that certain cables work with certain cartridges etc and some don't.
 

bonzo75

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Myles' audionirvana also has a thread on the topic
 

JackD201

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Apr 20, 2010
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Manila, Philippines
Most of my arms have captive cables except my Grahams. On the Grahams I've had Au24e with XLR, IC-70s, IC-90s and currently use Odin on the Elite the generation of which had Odin inside, an attempt to simulate a captive cable. Come to think of it The IC-70s were inside my B44 1 and 2 and the IC-90 I believe in the Supremes. I felt I got more information out of my 1s and 2s from the 90s over the 70s. Never did the comparison on Odins on the older Grahams as the carts were moved over to the new Elite wands. My incoming arm is captive also, an SAT. I've had no problems with my captive arms, I suppose the designers had done all the heavy lifting and did so well.
 

bonzo75

Member Sponsor
Feb 26, 2014
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London
Most of my arms have captive cables except my Grahams. On the Grahams I've had Au24e with XLR, IC-70s, IC-90s and currently use Odin on the Elite the generation of which had Odin inside, an attempt to simulate a captive cable. Come to think of it The IC-70s were inside my B44 1 and 2 and the IC-90 I believe in the Supremes. I felt I got more information out of my 1s and 2s from the 90s over the 70s. Never did the comparison on Odins on the older Grahams as the carts were moved over to the new Elite wands. My incoming arm is captive also, an SAT. I've had no problems with my captive arms, I suppose the designers had done all the heavy lifting and did so well.

Is this not a cartridge match - bright, dark, etc
 

Folsom

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Oct 25, 2015
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This is contrary to most but... many times I've preferred unshielded cables. Ya there was some hum when nothing was playing, I didn't like that. However now I'm using captive cords that seem to be fine. They may not be as good but I don't have an easy choice otherwise (installing RCA jacks etc).

That may not be the help you were looking for... I've heard Furutech has one that's really nice and priced rather modestly.
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
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Manila, Philippines
Is this not a cartridge match - bright, dark, etc

It could very well be Ked but its hard to isolate especially since the general character of the carts remain pretty much the same. With the external phono cables the change with my MC carts has more to do with noise and grain. When dealing with very low level signals SNR appears to matter a lot more than line level. I suppose if I used a lot of MM carts then the pF selector would be used a lot more. As it stands with the JPA-66 phono pre where tonality is flexible via gain, load and eq the noise/interference/artifact characteristics is what stands out most.
 

dctom

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Jan 28, 2015
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www.davidcthomas.co.uk
I was having some problems with hum on phono. I have a captive cable from the kuzma arm to the step up transformer, the cable from the sut to the phono stage was producing hum, an audience 24se Lo z, phono specific cable, single core with shield.

Inserting a twin core, solid silver Vdh shielded cable cured the hum, however it was not as transparent as the Audience.

I then tried the new Audience 24sx, this not only cured the hum it also sounded better.

Needless to say cables come in many configurations and don't necessarily work in all situations.
 

jeromelang

Well-Known Member
Dec 26, 2011
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ELP phono out => Pro-Ject RCACC Phono cable => Pass Labs Aleph Ono loading at 47kohms/100pf
No grounding cable sounded best.

Alternatively

ELP Line Out => Straightwire Crescendo => Pass Labs XP20
 

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