Interconnects for TT

Turntable interconnects are troublesom. Many times they have to be grounded, and shielded. This depends on the table and the cartridge that you are using. High output cartridges are far less critical than low output ones. They should not be digital interconnects.

I am using a high output MC (~2.5MV). Any recommendations that come to mind?

Eagleman

Thanks TVAD. I ordered a pair. The ones that I have now are digital ICs made by someone in my audio group here in Houston. While they sound pretty good from CD to Pre, I think that I am losing something in the TT to pre connection.

I was told ( by the needledoctor ) that the low cost Kimber cable i/cs are very good for use with turntables..I was told due to there design they reject most noise problems.. I was considering the "Hero" myself for my Thorens TD160 ...E-mail the needledoctor.com....I am sure they can help you..They are very good people to deal with....

Eagleman6722I am using Acoustic Zen Matrix Reference MkII from Pro-Ject 2Xperience turntable into Pro-Ject Tube Box II phono stage. From there I am using a pair of L1 RCA interconnects from bluejeanscables.com(about 11ft run) and the system sounds really good. Absolutely no complaints. BlueJeans cables are shielded and very low capacitance....good for a longer run as well.

09-28-07: Thorman
I was told ( by the needledoctor ) that the low cost Kimber cable i/cs are very good for use with turntables..I was told due to there design they reject most noise problems.. I was considering the "Hero" myself for my Thorens TD160...

My TT interconnects are captive, but if I could use interconnects, Kimbers would be on my short list. Kimber has some very cool and smart design features. Normally, heavily shielding interconnect raises its capacitance. Kimber figured out how to weave the leads to reject noise without encasing them in a shield. They're pretty low in capacitance while being very quiet. Best of both.

For the money, the Kimber Timbres are fantastic, esp. with the locking WBTs. After trying them out for awhile though (in the multi-channel HT rig), I switched up to Heroes. It turned out to be a very incremental improvement for about 50% more. Still, I really like the Heroes. They just sort of disappear into the system and I don't think about interconnects anymore. They just sound right.

It's no mystery to me why both Stereophile and Abso!ute Sound have raved about them (as well as Soundstage and some others).

Well, you bought them already... I use Anti-Cables on my Superscoutmaster and I love them.

I tried various cables on my Scoutmaster VPI ( Atlas Navigator allCu, Anti-Cable, Kimber Timbre, Kimber Hero, Kimber PBJ, DH Lab, Cardas Neutral Reference) and finally bought a VPI interconnect.

Works great and sound better the other I tried previously (well I have to say the Atlas Navigator was also good but more expensive).

But I would like to try the Hovland Music Groove II, apparently an excellent phono IC.

I recently auditioned two cables through The Cable Co. for my new analog rig- a SOTA Cosmos with SME V tone arm and Lyra Scala cart driving a Convergent Audio Technology SL I Ultimate MkII pre-amp.

In my system the Hovland Music Groove II had a pleasant balance with a polite presentation- never fatiguing but lacking in dynamics and frequency extension in both high and low frequencies. The soundstage was OK but did not excel in either front to back layering or sound stage width. Also this seemed to be a "low output" phono cable as I had to give my CAT preamp a third of a turn more volume to achieve the same output I got from the other cable I auditioned. As you can imagine this also created a higher noise floor with a predictable loss of low-level information.

The cable that stole the show was the Synergistic Research Tricon Analog. The first thing I notice when comparing the two cables, the Hovland requires a third of a turn more volume on my CAT pre-amp to reach the same output level I get from the Tesla Tricon. This seems to contribute to the Tricon’s higher resolution and lower noise floor when compared directly to the Music Groove II. In addition the sound stage was more layered with the Tricon- from in front of my speakers to behind the back wall of my listening room on some recordings. By contrast images seemed to stay within three feet of each other from front to back with the Hovland. Also, images that only "just" exceed my speaker placement with the Hovland extend well beyond the physical boundaries of my listening room with the Tricon. Harmonic structure was richer with the Tricon as compared to the Hovland- the Music Groove II seems to mask every aspect of a recording from sound staging to frequency response, harmonic texture, bloom and air. I am not exaggerating when I say it was like going from a standard resolution 480i TV to a 1080p projector as this is the best analogy I can make. My vinyl comes to life with all the emotion, harmonic richness, and dynamic extension of a master tape when the Tricon in the mix.

Of course cables are system dependent and I do have all SR Tesla cables in my signal path so this could be a contributing factor, but still I think it's a good idea to compare these two cables in your system before making a final decision.

..I was just wondering why in the world anyone would want to pay and play with interconnects and speaker cable that costs so much more than AntiCables, and are inferior. I just read the new Absolute Sound and Stereophile, and one of them gave such high marks to Anti-Cable as well. I'm not just hearing things folks... I tried nearly all of the most expensive from all the cable companies and NONE were as good as Anti-Cables in so many ways. AT LEAST TRY THEM...Paul offers a money back guarantee.

i can understand your passion for cables that work in your system. i have tried pauls interconnects and speaker wire, but they could not improve or better my jps sc2s. i think its a true statement "what works in one system does not work as well in another one" i guess thats why there are so much audio gear to choose from.
Stringreen i am glad you are happy and enjoying your system. thats what its all about.

Excellent...at least you tried them

Tvad,

Received the Mogamis. Big improvement over the digitals that I was using. Makes the phono very listenable. Great value @ 35 plus shipping.