Tonearm Cable:different from regular IC? Best one?


Hi Folks:
I have a tone arm (and Airtech MG-1 Air bearing tone arm) that has typical RCA coaxial R/L outputs, allowing me to use a regular RCA coaxial stereo IC cable between the arm and my preamp with phono (Supratek Syrah).

Question I have is - do I need to be somehow mindful of certain IC choice between tonearm and preamp, as a function of the type of signal output from the tone arm (which I assume is very low level), or can I simply mix and match any IC at my discretion, in the same way that I can from saw a CD player to my preamp?

Thus far, I’ve been using 47 Labs OTA cable (an IC kit where the cable is only about .4mm thick – high grade copper), and some Kimber PJB (only other IC I have that I’m not using already). I’m in the market to spend as much as $800 (used price) on an IC for this application, if the investment is worth it in the context of my overall system (see my virtual system for system details), but am happy to spend less if possible. Cables I’ve considered would include Nordost Valkryja, Stereovox, FIM Gold – but open to other suggestions.

So, I to sum up, I guess I’ve two questions – 1) Can I explore any and all ICs, or should I limit myself to certain ICs that are geared toward phono application? 2) Do you folks have recommendations on choice of IC for this application, at my pricepoint?

Thanks!
outlier

Showing 1 response by coffee_nudge

For an additional resource, you may want to look at the discussion at http://www.high-endaudio.com/RC-IC-Phono.html regarding I/Cs for phono use.

This was written by Arthur Salvatore, and you should be sure to read his disclaimers and his personal bias to put his comments in context. Although his opinions are just that -- his opinions -- I find his discussions on all sorts of components a good research source.