Tonearm wiring termination---DIN, or RCA jacks?

Great Peter, I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing your stuff, and meeting you. I'll be the longhair who isn't Michael Green or Ralph Karsten!

Yes indeed, will be in three of them on the 14th floor. Our Own PBN Room will feature the complete InnerChoic line of speakers, Sammy, Hadley and Liberty. Powered by our Olympia line of Electronics, PXi Phono, DX DAC, LXi Preamp and a pair of EB-SA1 Amplifiers.

Next to this room Madisound will feature the ScanSpeak B741 and the XmaX speaker kits designed by me, they will be powered by a complete Liberty Audio Setup, B2B-1 Phono, B2B-2 Preamp DAC and B2B-100 Amplifiers.

Across the hall in the Quintessence Acoustics room they will debut their new Stealth VII Loudspeaker System (We build all their Speakers) they will be powered our Olympia Line of Amplifiers, Pi Phono, DX DAC, Li Preamp and a pair of EB-SA1 power amplifiers.

All rooms will feature one of our GrooveMaster Vintage Direct turntables.

Hope to see everyone there, It'll be a GREAT show !

Lots more information here

Good Listening

Peter

Yup, I noticed that Peter. Good thinkin'! Say, are you gonna have a room at the Newport Show later in the month?

How about using Balanced termination (XLR) into a fully balanced pre....

Hello BDP,

Another reason to look here :-)

Liberty B2B-1

And I do make them but you already know that

Good Listening

Peter

In a related matter.....In looking for a new phono amp, I've noticed something: the location of their input jacks seems to be chosen for reasons of circuit board layout rather than of where the best location ergonomically is. I have my phono amp directly under my table, and the best place for the input jacks of an amp so located is obviously on the far left end of the rear panel (looking at the panel from the rear). So located, the arm wires need be only long enough to reach down to the jacks on the next shelf. Very few phono amps have their jacks in that location. The EAR 868, for instance, has it's on the far right of the rear panel, which is great if the amp is placed to the right of the table (looking at them from the front). All the ARC's I've seen have theirs exactly where I want them---on the far left of the panel (again, looking from the rear).

I sold the Well Tempered arm recently on ebay, and it can be seen if you do an "advanced" search for it on the site. Lary enclosed the internal wire with a braided sheath (for shielding) when it exited the arm, all the way to the male RCA's I had him terminate into.

I just saw all the responses---thanks! I've had the same "one uninterrupted run from clips to RCA plugs" viewpoint for years. When I had Lary Pedersen do his Well Tempered mod, I had him terminate the VdH wire in plugs to insert directly into my phono amp located directly under the table, and Brooks Berdan the same when he rewired my Rega with Cardas. But Johnnie (j7) at Audio Origami tells me he recommends against it, feeling the thin internal wire is too fragile, microphonic, and prone to picking up stray signals, etc. He prefers a DIN plug at the bottom of the arm pillar, but you know how conservative the British can be! KLEI RCA's are definitely going on the ends (of silver wire, also already decided upon), whichever wiring style I decide on.

Ditto uninterrupted direct-wire. I've transitioned from the vetted Hovland Musicgroove to various DIY straight-wire designs-- most recently with KLEI silver RCAs-- and will never go back. Count the number of soldered and metal-on-metal contacts eliminated and it makes perfect sense for low-level signal.

I agree with the direct wire approach from everyone above

But in the RCA arena - KLE Innovations Absolute Harmony RCA's are the best you can get - bar none!

I've owned the entire KLEI lineup - starting with his original Eichmann Silver Bullet and the Absolute Harmony are light years ahead.

Take a look at their web site for lots of reviews

Best Upgrade I ever made to my analogue rig!

Regards...

Direct wired RCA is best for low level signals.

I agree with the 1-piece wire approach whereby a single high-quality tonearm wire extends from the cartridge clips to the RCA plugs going into the preamp (or SUT). Mesch asked if any commercial tonearms do this, and the answer is Definitely! Each of my arms came that way---Triplanar,Schick and Siggwan. Typically the fine-gauge tonearm wire goes into a sheath a few inches from the arm with perhaps a ground wire inside which adds bulk and mass and makes the delicate wire much more durable. I have never had any problems with the wiring in my arms.

Re-wiring a tonearm can also be a nice sonic upgrade. I recently replaced the Cardas wiring in my Siggwan with something called "1877 Phono" wire, and this made a nice improvement in sound. The RCA plugs at the preamp end of the wire are also important. The Siggwan came with KLE Copper Harmony plugs, but swapping them out for KLE Absolute Harmony plugs made almost as much difference as the wire itself.

I don't know precisely how it is configured in each case inside the arm wand, but several tonearm builders provide a one piece solution (clips to male RCAs) as an option. I know my Schroeder does. There are bare wires in the wand and then the outer sheathing begins at the base of the arm pillar. If you have a Rega arm you can even buy a rewire kit that is direct from clips to RCAs as shown
here.

Good quality RCAs are superior to DINs. 'Swamp' also has a good solution.

Swamp, that seems like a very sensible solution. I suppose the wire could be enclosed in some type of sheath for added strength. Have you seen this done?

Not what you asked, so feel free to disregard, but if I were going to the expense of rewiring a tone arm, I would direct from cart clips to male RCAs that plug into your phono stage. Very low level phono cart output should, IMO, pass through as few mechanical connections as possible.

RCA, in my experience DIN connection is prone to crosstalk.
david