Vinyl and long cables or interconnects

jeff,
if your turntable isn't too close to the speakers(3'...4'away from each) than you've no problems and need no worry to use longer ICs.

When I remodeled my listening room I kept the monoblock amps by the speakers and moved the other gear to a side wall in the back of the room. This made a 7 meter run from the preamp to the amps. I had been using a 3 meter pair of Purist Audio Venustas interconnects. A 7 meter pair of Venustas would have been horribly expensive. So I switched to the Harmonic Technology Cyberlights. Being fiber optic, long distances are not a problem. Before I moved the equipment I and some friends did a listening test between the Venustas and the Cyber Lights. There were small differences in the sound, but no clear preference for one over the other. Long runs of Cyberlight are not that expensive ($2,300 MSRP for a 10 meter pair).

Without getting into the particulars (RFI & EMI antennas) long phono cables are problematic @ best.

I believe that the only connection you might have a problem with is if you try to situate the table a good distance from your pre-amp. Long runs of tonearm cable are rarely good. However, if you can place a phono stage next to the table you should have no problem with a fairly long run from the phono stage to the pre-amp. Just another idea for you to think about.

I have been using 6 meter interconnects between my pre and mono-blocks for several years now. I started with some 18 inch long XLO speaker wires. I was getting pretty good results as I had found that the shorter the speaker wires were the better depth I would get. Those were some fairly old and inexpensive speaker wires so getting more of them out of the signal chain was improving the sound. Now I'm using 1.5 meter Purist Audio cables and everything about the sound is so much better. My point here is that sometimes it is the quality of the cable, not the length, that makes the most difference.

I have been experimenting lately with running shorter IC's to the monoblocks but I've not concluded anything yet. Maybe because the IC's I'm using are both Nordost, one pair is Quatro Fil and one pair (the 6 meter pair) is SPM. Both pairs are balanced but I think even at 6 meters that single-ended would work just fine.

Good luck,

Dan

Hi Jeff

I run 6mtr Zu cable between my phono amp and power amp.

My power amp has an attenuator and loads of gain so I do not bother using a line level preamp. The amp is between the speakers and the phono and TT on the side of the room, easily within reach. I have not had any problems at all.

Regards
Paul

Dear Jeff: Usually the best is to have a short run cables between the tonearm and the phonopreamp.

Now, for the long run cables: if your preamp has a low output impedance then you will have not any troubles. I prefer short runs between amps and speakers.

Btw, which the problem with your today configuration?

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

I think I'll keep the interconnects between the table and the phone stage and the phone stage and the preamp short; and go with a long interconnect to the amps; and short from the amps to the speakers. Thanks for your feedback. Now to start shopping interconnects. Jeff