Analog cables for TT

Basically, turntable IC's carrying the phono cartridge stereo output to phono input jacks on your preamp are a pair of analog IC's. This is the same as the pair of analog IC's which run from your CD player's stereo output to CD input jacks on your preamp.

Yes yes, normal InterConnects (IC) but given the ultra low signal (0.23 mV), there should be some kinda special thing..
I would imagine that shielding is very important due to the faint signal going through, I dont think big copper conductors would be the best bet, probably very slim silver wire would be the best, I have seen people using from "medical" bare silver wire to garden hoses...
Anyone with good experience that can share?

The main difference is that because the signal is very much lower than the output of the CD player shielding is much more important. Unshielded interconnects can be used to very good effect with care on CD player outputs, but a turntable interconnect must be well shielded.

I think that you may have hit the nail on its head. Given the very low signal level coming from a moving coil cartridge, what works well in other applications may not work well for phono IC. Noise can also be a significant problem and shielding may in some instances be required. Likewise, the availability of a ground wire is often critical to avoid hum. Three cables that I highly recommend in order of increasing price: Hovland, Nordost Valhalla dedicated phono, and Siltech. The Siltech unfortunately is very expensive and takes forever to break in but is excellent as is the Valhalla. The Hovland is close to the other two and about one quarter of the price. I have not tried the top of the line Purist on phono but it should also be very good.

What arm, cartridge and phonostage are you using? These will impact what you can expect to hear with different cables.

It might be worth it to obtain some demo cables and swap them out so you can hear the differences for yourself.

Project TT, Project arm, Sumiko Blue Point Cartridge. TAD-150 Pre with phono...

Thanks,

I agree with Fcrowder, after the Hovland the improvement compared to price was not worth it for me.

The hovland is an $800 cable. Are we seriously suggesting using an $800 cable on a project turntable ? Honestly I don't think that is a good allocation of resources.

Ok, so we're talking a HO MC cartridge with an output impedance of 134 ohms. It's pretty much the same as any MM but since it is a MC I don't know if cable capacitance is much of an issue. Perhaps just try to keep the capacitance as low as possible without going nuts. Sean makes a good point. The wires in the arm are adequate but probably nothing special so not worth putting an expensive cable in the chain. You haven't said what cable you're using now, it's probably just fine, but it is always worth trying different cables. Just set yourself a budget amount and try to stick to that.

Best,

Dan

If you want to lower capacitance relatively cheaply replace the RCA connectors with Eichmann bullet plugs.

It's hard to get very low capacitance in a shielded cable, since the shielding is inherently capacitive design. Twin-parallel conductors (nordost, DNM) have much lower capacitance, but will not work due to the lack of shielding.

I had a Quatrofil, but sold it and went to a AU24, i like it better.