Tricky topic: What is your experience with a tonearm’s internal wire?

[Lee]

I had a thought about how hard it is to fairly compare equipment racks. Huge effort to resetup a stereo system. And who has the budget for two racks anyway?

I think internal tonearm wire fits this category as well. How do we know which is better? Buy two expensive (at least in WBF land) tonearms and switch back and forth? Possible sure, but not easy.

I would think it makes a material difference…small signal but right off the cartridge?

How should audiophiles think about this?

Has anyone done a modification and had an experience they can share?

 

[ssfas]

Johnnie 7 does the resides here in the UK. It’s probably more the case of if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but he knows his onions. He is also the designer and purveyor of the magnificent Audio Origami PU7 and PU8 tonearms.

About J7 - J7 Rewires - Tonearm Rewiring Services

j7rewires.co.uk

Audio Origami | Reference Tonearms

Audio Origami is a small British company dedicated to making the best tonearms in the world.

www.audio-origami.co.uk

 

[Anton D]

Tonearm wire lives in tiger country: I don't go there!

 

[Lee]

Johnnie 7 does the resides here in the UK. It’s probably more the case of if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but he knows his onions. He is also the designer and purveyor of the magnificent Audio Origami PU7 and PU8 tonearms.

About J7 - J7 Rewires - Tonearm Rewiring Services

j7rewires.co.uk

Audio Origami | Reference Tonearms

Audio Origami is a small British company dedicated to making the best tonearms in the world.

www.audio-origami.co.uk

Very interesting!

 

[tima]

I had a thought about how hard it is to fairly compare equipment racks. Huge effort to resetup a stereo system. And who has the budget for two racks anyway?

I think internal tonearm wire fits this category as well. How do we know which is better? Buy two expensive (at least in WBF land) tonearms and switch back and forth? Possible sure, but not easy.

I would think it makes a material difference…small signal but right off the cartridge?

How should audiophiles think about this?

Has anyone done a modification and had an experience they can share?

I wrote a review of the Kuzma 4-Point when Franc K replaced the original's metal bearing cups with sapphire and ruby bearing cups. It made for a nice upgrade. Kuzma offered an upgrade service to convert earlier arms to current spec and I wanted to have the new model. Instead of using the upgrade service I decided to purchase the review sample but I held on to my current 4Point. What that allowed me to do is have both new and older arms at the same time so I could compare them. After I wrote the review I sold the original 4Point.

When ordering the jeweled bearing 4Point I specified a different tonearm cable, going from the stock Crystal-Cable silver/gold to Kondo AudioNote Japan silver tonearm wire. Among other things, that meant my comparison of the two arms had a difference in wiring along with the different bearings.

Kuzma 4Point tonearm4Point Bejeweled – A Guided Tour of an Improved Kuzma Tonearm - Positive Feedback

Kuzma 4Point tonearm review

positive-feedback.com

So that is one way to do a comparison of different tonearm wires for the same arm. It actually was easy to do if you're willing to sell the arm you do not choose after having them both. It does mean you'll want to use the arm manufacture to do this versus sending your arm out to a third-party rewire service.

Something else to consider. Your new tonearm wire is, well, brand new. To bring my new 4-Point closer to the state of my original arm I first burnt-in the new wire. I did this with the new Kondo wire in the tonearm although it can be done before the new wire is installed in the tonearm.

I used a Hagerman Audio Labs FryBaby2 to do the burn-in. To facilitate this I made a short adapter cable that had a Cardas 5-Pin Male DIN connector on one end to receive the clips off the tonearm and two RCA cables on the other end to plug into the Fry Baby. I can describe this in more detail if anyone is interested.

You really want to burn-in new tonearm wire because the tiny voltage coming off a MC or even MM cartridge is likely to never be enough to get the wire fully burnt-in. Of course you can ignore this if you prefer, but from my experience it really does make a positive difference.


Frybaby burn in. The red wire is the homemade adapter.



Adapter made to fit tonearm clips



Cardas connector - just don't use the middle pin.

 

[A-Line]

Linn uses their T-Kable for what it's worth. Sounds great to my ears...

 

[Lee]

I wrote a review of the Kuzma 4-Point when Franc K replaced the original's metal bearing cups with sapphire and ruby bearing cups. It made for a nice upgrade. Kuzma offered an upgrade service to convert earlier arms to current spec and I wanted to have the new model. Instead of using the upgrade service I decided to purchase the review sample but I held on to my current 4Point. What that allowed me to do is have both new and older arms at the same time so I could compare them. After I wrote the review I sold the original 4Point.

When ordering the jeweled bearing 4Point I specified a different tonearm cable, going from the stock Crystal-Cable silver/gold to Kondo AudioNote Japan silver tonearm wire. Among other things, that meant my comparison of the two arms had a difference in wiring along with the different bearings.

Kuzma 4Point tonearm4Point Bejeweled – A Guided Tour of an Improved Kuzma Tonearm - Positive Feedback

Kuzma 4Point tonearm review

positive-feedback.com

So that is one way to do a comparison of different tonearm wires for the same arm. It actually was easy to do if you're willing to sell the arm you do not choose after having them both. It does mean you'll want to use the arm manufacture to do this versus sending your arm out to a third-party rewire service.

Something else to consider. Your new tonearm wire is, well, brand new. To bring my new 4-Point closer to the state of my original arm I first burnt-in the new wire. I did this with the new Kondo wire in the tonearm although it can be done before the new wire is installed in the tonearm.

I used a Hagerman Audio Labs FryBaby2 to do the burn-in. To facilitate this I made a short adapter cable that had a Cardas 5-Pin Male DIN connector on one end to receive the clips off the tonearm and two RCA cables on the other end to plug into the Fry Baby. I can describe this in more detail if anyone is interested.

You really want to burn-in new tonearm wire because the tiny voltage coming off a MC or even MM cartridge is likely to never be enough to get the wire fully burnt-in. Of course you can ignore this if you prefer, but from my experience it really does make a positive difference.

View attachment 154443
Frybaby burn in. The red wire is the homemade adapter.

View attachment 154444

Adapter made to fit tonearm clips

View attachment 154445

Cardas connector - just don't use the middle pin.

Super helpful as always Tim!

 

[microstrip]

Cable believers, as me, can expect tonearm internal to significantly affect sound quality.

IMO it is one more case where most of the time extrapolation, faith and bias must help us to keep sane in this hobby. In the old days I have rewired a few tonearms - SME 3009's, Eminent Technology, a cheap Technics and a Rega RB300, using Cardas and Nordost wire, and surely every time it sounded a lot better. Surely I did not revert the wiring for more tests or compare it directly to the standard wire ...

One more problem associated with direct comparisons is the variation of cartridge samples of the same model in top MC cartridges - most of the time they sound different and have different output levels. Sometimes in order to re-wire the internal damping material is removed and must be replaced with an alternative type.

 

[tima]

Super helpful as always Tim!

Thank you!