Phono Cables with 2 ground wires!

Johnny Vinyl · Jan 2, 2015

I'm in the middle of looking at various turntables and noticed that one of them (Oracle Paris) has a connection for standard L/R RCA and ground wire. Does this mean that I have buy a phono cable with 2 ground wires? If not, is it better to connect a single ground wire to the turntable or the amplifier?

microstrip · Jan 2, 2015

Johnny Vinyl said:
I'm in the middle of looking at various turntables and noticed that one of them (Oracle Paris) has a connection for standard L/R RCA and ground wire. Does this mean that I have buy a phono cable with 2 ground wires? If not, is it better to connect a single ground wire to the turntable or the amplifier?

Usually you can use a standard RCA cable (with or without ground wire) and connect the separate grounding wire using any simple cable. As the old Oracle's used an acrylic arm mount, we had to have separate grounding points and ground cables for chassis and tonearm, eventually with a third wire going to the motor. All of them connected to the the ground lug on the phono amplifier. If by any reason the motor case was connected to ground of the mains for safety reasons (not usual, but some after-market power supplies had this characteristic ), you should not connect the motor ground wire to the phono it, as it would create a ground loop injecting noise in the phono ground.

Johnny Vinyl · Jan 2, 2015

microstrip said:
Usually you can use a standard RCA cable (with or without ground wire) and connect the separate grounding wire using any simple cable. As the old Oracle's used an acrylic arm mount, we had to have separate grounding points and ground cables for chassis and tonearm, eventually with a third wire going to the motor. All of them connected to the the ground lug on the phono amplifier. If by any reason the motor case was connected to ground of the mains for safety reasons (not usual, but some after-market power supplies had this characteristic ), you should not connect the motor ground wire to the phono it, as it would create a ground loop injecting noise in the phono ground.

With respect...thanks for the history lesson on the old Oracle's, and I do appreciate that. However, what should I do with the new Oracle and my amp? i.e. ...can I ignore the ground wire connection on the Oracle and use just a standard phono cable with the ground connection at the amp?

slowGEEZR · Jan 2, 2015

I think it is just a design choice. My VPI has a junction box with the L/R RCA connections and a ground connector. My TTW GEM does not. The phono cable should have one ground which can be connected either to the turntable ground or the phono pre. If you have hum, then you can try to connect the turntable ground via a separate ground wire to the phono pre. Ground loops and/or hum are problems that can be infuriatingly difficult to fix. With my VPI, I had to use one specific pair of phono cables, as I got a hum with others. For the TTW, I found that no matter what I tried, I couldn't get rid of a hum when using one cartridge. Other cartridges play fine with it.

Johnny Vinyl · Jan 2, 2015

Thanks Steve! You too Micro!

Another question....damn, I thought connecting a TT was simple.

If I order a phono cable with 2 ground wires and connect both ground wires....will that represent an issue? My initial thought was to connect the ground to the amp only.

microstrip · Jan 2, 2015

Johnny Vinyl said:
With respect...thanks for the history lesson on the old Oracle's, and I do appreciate that. However, what should I do with the new Oracle and my amp? i.e. ...can I ignore the ground wire connection on the Oracle and use just a standard phono cable with the ground connection at the amp?

I hope not - it was a poor practice used by Thorens in the 60's - using the right cable shield as an arm ground wire. IMHO in the new Paris the separate ground wire is mandatory. Some dedicated RCA to RCA phono cables, such as Kimber KS116 already have a separate ground wire in the cable harness. But I never owned a recent Oracle Paris.

BTW, just found that the green ground wire is shown in the Oracle Paris manual.

Johnny Vinyl · Jan 2, 2015

microstrip said:
I hope not - it was a poor practice used by Thorens in the 60's - using the right cable shield as an arm ground wire. IMHO in the new Paris the separate ground wire is mandatory. Some dedicated RCA to RCA phono cables, such as Kimber KS116 already have a separate ground wire in the cable harness. But I never owned a recent Oracle Paris.

BTW, just found that the green ground wire is shown in the Oracle Paris manual.

Ok...if I decide to go with the Oracle Paris as my next TT I will order a dual-grounded phono cable (ground at TT and amp) and connect them at both ends.

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Phono Cables with 2 ground wires!

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