Tonearm re-wiring a full exchange of views would be appreciated

Loheswaran

Well-Known Member
Dec 19, 2014
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Dear WBF'ers

I have taken receipt of a Fidelity Research FR 64s. Given its' age thought I would get it re-wired and the questions are essentially:

1. Which wire?
2. Is it better to have a straight through to plugs wire, or a base termination? I have always pondered how much signal is lost via the plugs.
3. What is the science/ reasoning for terminating at base and then having a separate tonearm cable
4. What about cryogenic cable treatment?


At present I am considering an Ikeda silver cable to terminate at the arm base - I don't think they do a through cable.

I would very much appreciate your opinions and views

thanks

Lohan
 

Uk Paul

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Sep 27, 2012
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Lohan,
Pretty much all the questions I asked myself when re-wiring my SAEC 506, probably from the same era as your FR..

I decided to stay with copper, as per SAEC, and again, used the 5 pin connector. Being able to disconnect the arm cable was useful for me, and I don't think there is much of a trade off if any at all sonically. Never got to try cryo though I did have discussions with a company about it. Max Townshend is a fan of cryo treatment and he is a good engineer and his cables are excellent..

Perhap's some other's will share some experience here?
 

advanced101

VIP/Donor
May 3, 2017
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I have been curious about having my FR-64S rewired with Kondo. My FR has silver wiring so im in no rush. If it had copper originally I would have already sent it out.
 

Loheswaran

Well-Known Member
Dec 19, 2014
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I know that FR64 aficionado Syntax says don't bother with rewiring.

As to cardas - I am curious as I've read that it is quite stiff

HAs anyone tried Audio Note silver wire?
 

mtemur

Well-Known Member
Mar 26, 2019
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I have been curious about having my FR-64S rewired with Kondo. My FR has silver wiring so im in no rush. If it had copper originally I would have already sent it out.
well, there is no similarity between other silver wires and kondo. I rewired my sme V with kondo ksl silver wire 10 years ago and still very happy with the result. sme V is originally wired with silver van den hul wire at the factory, but silver van den hul sounds totally different than silver kondo. actually kondo sounds totally different than the other silver wires. if you're going to rewire your tonearm with kondo, consider buying kondo silver tonearm cable and silver transformer too in order to get the full benefits of rewiring. and don't forget to buy lead in wires or do it yourself with silver cartridge clips and left off silver wire that you used for rewiring.
 

Loheswaran

Well-Known Member
Dec 19, 2014
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I had a truly enlightening conversation with Johnnie at Audio Origami - a total enthusiast who loves his craft - and is happy to share and discuss ideas - look forward to buying something off him sooner rather than later.

I quizzed him at length about rewires and he very much confirmed what Syntax once told me - don't bother. He explained why and in short
1.The FR64 is a difficult arm to take apart and rewire for starters
2. whenever he has opened up an FR64 - they usually have the same wire as ikeda make now - just a different coloured jacket

He explained a whole lot more in detail, but I think it will be improper of me to say too much - that said I thoroughly recommend anyone on this forum looking for honest enthusiastic advice from someone that truly cares and knows their art give this guy a call.
 

tima

Industry Expert
Mar 3, 2014
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Dear WBF'ers

I have taken receipt of a Fidelity Research FR 64s. Given its' age thought I would get it re-wired and the questions are essentially:

1. Which wire?
2. Is it better to have a straight through to plugs wire, or a base termination? I have always pondered how much signal is lost via the plugs.
3. What is the science/ reasoning for terminating at base and then having a separate tonearm cable
4. What about cryogenic cable treatment?

...

re 2.: As an example, you might check the bi-wire option that Kuzma offers: Coming off each cartridge clip are two wires. One set of four end in a termination box with Cardas Female RCAs to which you can attach your own tonearm cable. The other set of four terminate at the end of cables with Male RCA plugs that can attach to your phono stage. So you can use your own cable and/or use a continuous run. There is also a grounding wire.

Wrt to signal loss, from my experience, sonically it's non-existent or minimal.

re3.: Can't say about science, but the obvious answer is to allow the end-user their choice in tonearm cable.

re4.: I think it's kinda meh, but gauge with your own ears. More important, imo, is to burn-in the tonearm wire / tonearm cable (unless you're using Shunyata.) The voltage off a cartridge, especially a moving coil, may never be enough to burn-in the wire no matter how long you use. (Why waste a cartridge burning in wire?) So that would be with a burn-in device such as a Hagerman Frybaby or Cable Cooker - some manufacturers and others offer burn-in as a service. Such devices seem, imo, to do a better job, than running signal from a burn-in disk off a CD player through the tonearm wire. YMMV,
 

Audiophile Bill

Well-Known Member
Mar 23, 2015
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I had a truly enlightening conversation with Johnnie at Audio Origami - a total enthusiast who loves his craft - and is happy to share and discuss ideas - look forward to buying something off him sooner rather than later.

I quizzed him at length about rewires and he very much confirmed what Syntax once told me - don't bother. He explained why and in short
1.The FR64 is a difficult arm to take apart and rewire for starters
2. whenever he has opened up an FR64 - they usually have the same wire as ikeda make now - just a different coloured jacket

He explained a whole lot more in detail, but I think it will be improper of me to say too much - that said I thoroughly recommend anyone on this forum looking for honest enthusiastic advice from someone that truly cares and knows their art give this guy a call.

Johnnie supplied me with the silver Ikeda tonearm cable that I used to rewire my Vyger arm. It provided a very nice uptick in performance. I only rewired it cos I accidentally damaged the other though.

For those thinking of doing it yourself - the ikeda sheath is one of the trickiest things ever to remove. You can’t burn it and you can’t use strippers. You have to do it really carefully by hand with a sharp knife and a lot of manual dexterity. Also got to be careful with soldering such a low guage wire.
 

dan31

Well-Known Member
Jul 22, 2010
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SF Bay
If the existing wire works, leave it be. You should give the connections a thorough cleaning at each end. Likely the original wire is great wire.
 
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