Tonearm cable recommendations...
I've had both in my Transrotor Atlante/SME IV/Benz Micro Ebony setup and more recently in my Sota Cosmos with the same arm and cartridge and I have found the Furutech to be only slightly better in soundstage width and maybe depth. Tone, dynamics and presence seem to be about equal and not too different. I think they both sell for the same price, roughly. My reaction to both was ho hum. |
I've been through it. I've have a UP4 now but have had a DP6 recently and went through the upgrade process. Most everything mentioned here is better than the TCI Viper except the VDH, I think. I've listened to the OL and the Tyr head to head and the Tyr was better in my system but the OL was really nice. For me the best, and the one I bought, was the Furutech. It just had the best of all the categories: tonality, highs, lows, mids. It's a really wonderful cable. All these were really way out of my price range but a good tonearm cable is such a worthwhile investment that I really stretched. |
I have the tyr, discovery and WSS. Tyr used is about $500-600. Discovery is a great cable especially for price approx $400. WSS Kable from germany also excellent as well. They all sound slightly different but not one is drastically superior to another. I did a little shootout and got a bunch of phono cables together up to $4k retail. They all sound a little different but price did not correlate with performance. Some are better shielded. Some are different in capacitance thus require adjustment in loading. |
The Silver Breeze is a great phono cable investment for the price, especially, if you want to upgrade to something without breaking the bank, relatively speaking. I have had great audio results with the Silver Breeze. In addition, I know that if I ever wanted to upgrade to something else, I could sell it pretty easily. Lot's of information regarding the Silver Breeze and the Hovland Music Groove, which sadly, are out of production, but are less expensive if you could find them used. I am using the Silver Breeze on an SME V so your results might vary. |
I'm also looking for a tonearm cable for my SME V. What I am trying to do is, choose a cable specifically designed for tonearm use. I believe not all the cables ended DIN at one side are tonearm cables. I'm not knowledgeable about that topics, inductance, load etc all seem alien to me but, I believe even MM signals and MC signals should handled differently (please correct me if I'm wrong). So when I don't see any tiny bit of information at manufacturer homepages, I tend to eliminate that one. From what I read Silver Breeze and Hovland are tonearm specific manufacturers. Furutech AG-12 also seem to be another one. I trust Cardas line, but can not see an information either. |
The VDH MC P-502 is the 'yuk-iest' tonearm cable I ever heard! Why SME persists in supplying them with their best tonearms I will never understand! Had I not scored an amazing deal on a Purist Venustas a few years ago, the Silver Breeze is the worst kept secret for under a grand: http://www.silveraudio.com/special.htm (scroll to the bottom of the page) Max will usually be able to send you one to audition in your own system and hopefully against others mentioned above ;--) |
