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Balanced XLR Turntable / Tonearm

Hi all. I'm moving to a fully balanced amplification system (phone preamp to preamp to amp -- all Sierra). I have an inexpensive turntable today -- the AR Turntable (1984) with a Linn Basik Plus arm and an Adcom Hexacoil moving coil cartridge. The Linn Basik has a 5 pin DIN type connector with a separate ground and I had planned to "cut and paste" an XLR cable to it to connect to the phono preamp. However, my analog system is not that great and my other alternative is to go to a different table/tonearm setup. Are there any that you would recommend and are not too expensive (e.g., under $4k) that already have balanced outputs? Of course, I could always "cut and paste" other setups but it would be easier if the tonearm wires were not connected to ground, so that could work too. Thanks.
ozfly
8 responses Add your response
oldears
386 posts
 
I have rewired my alphason tonearm with discovery stranded Cu cable directly soldered to Kimber Silver streak balanced. I used a silver wire to the + & - for each channel. On the rca end I attached the Cu ground to the outside rca. The other end of the Kimber Cu wire is not connected. This amounts to a phantom balanced connection. I have maintained the separate ground from the tonearm to the Oracle TT base to the ground connection on the preamp. I was pleasantly surprised when I finished the experiment that I have NO noise when using a 0.4 mv moving coil, now in 2 different houses.
BTW I agree with the Gmorris response and am ready to rewire the present arm to XLR if I ever spring for a phono preamp which will take fully balanced.
gmorris
351 posts
 
TWI:
Actually, the opposite is true. Phono cartridges are inherently balanced devices (same impedance to ground for both the + and -). It is quite simple to terminate the phono cable with XLR connectors. I am using an ARC PH2 (with an Oracle Delphi MKV SE) and I made up my own phono cable from Burmester silver interconnect cable.
mrowlands
54 posts
 
The last time I checked (about 2 years ago), the folks at www.originlive.com would special order their tonearms with balanced cables. I've heard that there can be a small but definite improvement (blacker background, possibly better dynamics) by going balanced; of course maybe it's system/hearing dependent. I plan to try it when funds permit. Let us know what you do.

Mike R.
smotyka
62 posts
 
I also went to a fully balanced phono into a BAT P10 that I had upgraded to balanced inputs.

I then had a pair of Cardas Golden reference XLR cables reterminated so that the ends going into the table became rca. Note that the RCA (-) inputs on my table, a Well Tempered reference are not grounded. I then ran a separate ground wire from the rca mounting bracket (which has a wire connected to the tonearm) to the phono stage.

Steve
jfrech's avatar
jfrech
1,816 posts
 
I'm running a din to XLR Hovland cable into a BAT VKP10SE phono stage. The XLR termination did take some noise out vs the RCA termination. I have both inputs on my phono stage. It helps.

I think the Aesthex Io, the Ayre, Atmas-Sphere are other examples of balanced phono stages. I'm sure there are many others. The turntable tonearm isn't a issue. It a cable connection and how it interfaces w/ your phono stage...

Ayre actually has simple diagrams of what to hook where for a XLR phono cable...
ozfly OP
887 posts
 
Twl, you're undoubtedly correct, but I'm moving to a phono preamp (battery powered, fully differential, copper shielded ...) that only allows for XLR connections and requires floating positives, negatives and grounds -- one per channel. The Discovery Cable route is one way to go. Since I might be better off with a new "mid-fi" turntable (the Torres will have to wait), I was hoping there might be one that is already configured for the XLR cable. Judging from the relatively low number of responses, my guess would be that no such table/arm exists. I continue to invite folks to share any knowledge about such configurations. In the meantime, I may have to look up some old "best of" threads for a new table/arm and then go the route recommended by Discovery Cable. Thanks again.
twl
3,251 posts
 
Most tonearm cables are RCA unbalanced types, since the vast majority of all phono cartridges are unbalanced.
There is no real advantage of any kind to using a balanced connection on the tonarm cable.
wires
22 posts
 
You can get a custom made 5 pin DIN to XLR cable from Discovery Cable. They have specialized in phono cables, tonearms and the like for years.
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