Captive turntable interconnects; should I modify??

Think of this not just in terms of the quality of the cable itself, but also
(and probably more importantly) in terms of the number of mechanical
connections (crimps/solder joints) that your cartridge's puny signal has to
endure on it's way to your preamp.

Your tonearm's thin internal wires are inevitably soldered to the captive IC
at some point inside it's base via one (probably two) sets of solder joints. If
you can access the point at which those thin wires "become"
the IC, and then solder a new higher quality IC directly to them, assuming
that you dress everything properly you will make gains. If you plan on
simply cutting the captive IC just outside the turntable base and then
soldering the stubs to a new set of female RCA's with the necessary
additional solder joints, sending the signal to an additional set of male
RCA's and solder joints on the new IC, then IMO you will be making
things worse. Even if you hardwire the new IC directly to the stubs of the
original captive IC you are adding one more set of solder joints to the
signal path. IMO, what you gain by the higher quality cable will be offset
by the additional solder joint. That cheap looking captive cable is probably
decent to begin with, and those thin and cheap looking jacks sometimes
sound better than the big beefy ones that have all that extra material that
the signal has to travel through.

If sonics are your only concern, you have not experienced serious
problems with RFI, and don't mind the look, I would encourage you to
contact the outfit that regularly advertises here as Cardas Tonearm
Rewiring Service (or something like that), and order a set of Cardas
tonearm wires terminated with cartridge clips at one end and RCA's at the
other. Order it long enough to run from your cartridge clips directly to your
preamp, allowing an extra six inches or so to create a "loop"
over the pillar/pivot of your tonearm. You attach it along the bottom of the
tonearm tube with a couple of very thin strips of blue painter's tape (easily
removed), you then carefully dress it to create a loop over the pillar/pivot
and tape the bottom of the loop to the table somewhere very close to the
arm's base/pillar making sure that the arm can move unimpeded by the
wire loop, and on to your preamp. You will be eliminating several solder
joints for unimpeded signal travel through much higher quality wire.

It really is easier than it sounds, your table/tonearm will remain in stock
form, and the improvement in sound will amaze you.

The rewireing services might worth the same funds as turntable.
DIY rewire will save half.
There are many options:
Stay as-is (probably highest ROI)
Incognito wire set (Best value)
Transparent wire set (Best performance, but high price)
Cardas wire set (Not sure if better than Incognito or even would say that Ingognito wire set has Cardas wires?)...

I removed the captive signal/ground cable on my Denon DP-59L many years ago and have not looked back. I installed a pair of Furutech pure copper RCAs and Vampire ground post. I used pure silver wire between the RCAs and base of the tonearm, where the stock cables were terminated.

Pic of the mod: http://i994.photobucket.com/albums/af67/mr_classe/Denon/dp59_mod.jpg

Gbart,
Yr pic of the mod does not load.

The picture link is valid. It works for me on two different PCs. Try copying and pasting into your browser.

Gbart,
I believe that replacing captive wires would do substantially better job than non-captive. You're eliminating an extra connection on the signal path to go directly to the phono amp.

Huh?!?

make sure you use low mass rca plugs, like the wbt nextgens, they are perfect for this application, and let more of your music through !!!

Chrissain,
Can you explain why low mass is important.
Thanks!

Klipschking, thoughts, reactions?

I think I am going to hard wire better quality cables to the tonearm leads, as several members have described above. I like Marakanetz' suggestion about the low-mass connectors; it just seems intuitively correct. It may be a few weeks 'til I have the time, but I'll let you know how it turns out. I am really surprised at the excellent sound I get out of the DP47f. May be largely due to the Ortofon Samba MC cartridge & the Perreaux SXVI MC preamp, but its also a testiment to Denon's 1980's tech!

most normal rca plugs are solid brass that are gold plated. the wbt rcs are thin pure copper tubes that are gold plated. the nextgens have much less skin effect, and lower resistance with low voltage signals than normal rcas, the phase shift is less also, which WILL sound more open ,less harsh, and more transparent . I do not work for wbt by the way nor am I a dealer, good luck, Chris

Late post to an old thread, but here goes. This might be a silly question, but if you inherit a good vintage turntable that has been modified with RCA jacks in the plinth back, how do you tell which side is + and which - if the jacks look alike? Can you damage either the turntable or the pre-amp if the cables are are not connected correctly? Or does it matter as long as the ground wire is fastened firmly to the pre-amp? Best wishes. -Choppy

Are you saying the RCA jacks are not marked for left or right channel?  Well the easy thing to do would be to test continuity up to the actual cartridge connections, or the easier thing would be to compare a vinyl that you have also on CD and see if the channels sound reversed between the two sources or not.  If you have the CD player connected right!  Then mark the dang thing so you don't forget.