regarding shielding

Hi Mt10425:

I checked and found that the Music Meter cables are constructed of TWO wires in a "twisted pair" configuration. This works well for rejecting RFI (with no shield) but not so much for 60Hz hum (although hum is more easily controlled by careful cable placement.) Twisting the + and - conductors together though, creates other issues that might negatively affect performance (or not) depending on the cables' application.

The Vinyl Junkie phonoamp is actually solid state for the first gain stage (first and second gain stages if you're using a MC cartridge.) That's where tube hiss would happen if tubes were used there.

The unit's power supply is a (transformerless) "switching" power supply providing high voltage to the tubes, and the 12V DC is provided by a wall wart transformer. Neither of those devices require a third ground conductor, as would be required for a more conventional power supply which is often housed in a separate chassis away from the sensitive phonoamp circuits.

Thanks much Nsgarch! I've looked hard for that info without any luck. I
knew the hybrid phono was not all tube, but didn't know when SS kicked in.
It's very hard to tell there are two wires just by looking at the cable. The
phono power supply isn't the plug into the wall type, but the type a
computer printer uses (2 piece) with a separate cord (in this case a c-7
Pangea) to the wall. As far as the 60Hz hum, all cables are placed away
from each other, none touch. The cart is MM, a Grado Sonata. Again, this
is much appreciated info and helps to explain my questions.

THANKS FOR ALL THE RESPONSES!

My followup question just to be sure...
I have Siltech ST 18 G3 interconnect cable with 1 red, 1 blue insulated conductors and surrounded by braided shielding.. Could you please tell me the best way for me to connect my WBT 108 RCA connectors...
Thanks

Pl_guy, you would connect the red to the RCA center pin (as red is customarily +) and the white to the ring (body) of the WBT RCAconnector. The shield braiding can be separated at one end, and about half the wires trimmed back to where the outer jacket ends -- the other half you twist into a little (uninsulated) conductor and solder one end to the body of the RCA connector (or you can do it along with the white conductor when you solder the white conductor to the RCA connector body.) You only need to do this (with the shield) on one end. If the outer jacket has arrows, then you should connect the shield this way on the end of the cable that the arrows will point to. If no arrows on the outer jacket, I use a piece of green heatshrink denoting 'ground' (along with the red or black heatshrink for channel colors) on the end where the shield is connected to ground.

On the other end, only connect the red and white signal conductors. Then after carefully separating the shield wires, spread them out and using a fine scissors or cutter, carefully trim all the shield wires back to where the outer jacket stops. If you plan ahead ;~) you can have a piece of heatshrink waiting 'up-cable' to slide down and shrink over the place where you trimmed the braid -- just to make sure the braid doesn't touch the (ground) barrel of the RCA connector ;~)

Excellent historical information Nsgarch!