Is there a maximum length for tonearm wiring?


In other words, the wiring that leaves my rega rb700 tonearm and plugs into my pre-amp is about 1 meter long. I would like to move the turntable further away from the pre-amp which would require wiring about 2 meters long. Is this less than ideal to increase the length of the wires to 2 meters? Would I lose part of the signal by increasing the wire length? Thanks for the help. George.
merlinman
No, you won't lose part of the signal, because the cable impedance (at audio frequencies) will still be negligible compared to the load impedance (the input impedance of the preamp). But you do have to be careful about a couple of things.

If you have a moving magnet cartridge, you have to make sure that the total cable capacitance, plus the input capacitance of the preamp, are within the manufacturer's recommended range of capacitance for the cartridge. Otherwise you will lose frequency response flatness in the treble.

That is not a concern if you have a moving coil cartridge. But in both cases you should be sure to use a quality cable, which presumably would provide good shielding to minimize noise pickup.

Regards,
-- Al
Dear George: +++++ " Would I lose part of the signal by increasing the wire length? " +++++

in the same moment that the cartridge signal goes through a cable you start to lose/changing the original signal: adding and loosing information.

If you don't have a better choice to reduce the distance between the TT and phono stage then you have no alternative and the best you can do is try to use a cable that can do a better/neutral job that only conduct the signal and if it is in balance fashion the better.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
Raul- The problem is that the rack I currently use is only 22" by 18" deep and I don't think that is big enough for most high end TT's like Galibier or Verdier. Maybe a Raven One would fit but I'm not sure so I'm thinking of putting the TT on an adjacent wooden cabinet but this would involve increasing the length of the interconnect to about 2 meters. Currently I use a Nottingham Spacedeck and it fits perfectly since it is very compact. I was just curious if increasing the interconnect to two meters would have any negative audible consequences. What is your opinion? George.