I moved the phono equalizer close to the TT so I could use a two foot cable pair I made. The signal wire is 24 AWG solid copper and the shield is 3/8" braided for low capacitance of 15 pf/foot. The dielectric between signal and shield is cotton yarn, big stuff about 2mm diameter, 25 strands.
TONEARM REWIREE - DUMB QUESTION
I am thiking about re-wiring an arm myself from cartridge tags to phono plugs.
My questions are:
1. after exiting the arm does one solder a heavier gauge of cable to beef up the smaller cable
2. does one simply shield the cable on exiting the arm
3. any wire recommendations other than cardas which i understand are quite stiff
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VAS re-wired mine, used a VPI junction box like this
Solder a small connector on your tonearm wires to go into the socket on top. out: either Balanced or RCA as shown ............................. here’s a used one
you need the small fitting for the end of your wires .. shown on the end of this VPI arm https://www.ebay.com/itm/265582538423?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=265582538423&targetid=1262749490862&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=9003512&poi=&campaignid=14859008593&mkgroupid=130497710760&rlsatarget=pla-1262749490862&abcId=9300678&merchantid=6296724&gclid=CjwKCAjwp7eUBhBeEiwAZbHwkdtsF4vi2W0T-xAMgVkR1GOQ0Qq90-sU6cpjR4NRNAJTRE0Q4WVKKhoCXrIQAvD_BwEhere’s one with phono cable hard wired. *** NOTICE the optional adapter for an arm with standard DIN5 to the small connector https://www.ebay.com/itm/394039176137?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338381866&toolid=10001&customid=9c216b30-dc9a-11ec-8784-643530373966 |
You don't say what tonearm you are re-wiring. This will impact what kind of wire you use and how to go about shielding it. SME's for example take to the Cardas wire exceedingly well. I've done over a hundred of them and the stiffness (which is greatly exaggerated) has never been a problem, and using the shielded wire eliminates a lot of messing around. |
That stuff looks pretty good in terms of flexibility, but check out Audio Note AN-WIRE-300. It’s made from three strands of 0.0019" thick silver wire (half the thickness of the average human hair) and has 6 coats of polyurethane as insulation. It’s incredibly hard to work with, but I can’t imagine anything thinner or more flexible. I ran mine straight from the cartridge clips to phonostage RCAs. https://www.hificollective.co.uk/wire/audio-note-silver-internal-tone-arm-wire.html Here’s my wire next to a typical Bic ball point pen:
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Wow @ketchup ketchup that’s thin… I see Cardas do a new ‘Clear’ wire which is supposed to be very flexible. out of interest does one run ground via the shielding or just a separate wire?
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