Why is the standard tonearm cable not good enough?

This is a good question.

Personally, I like my Rega RB1000 tonearm because it has very high quality IC from the cartridge to the male RCA plugs with NO break in the cable. True it does not allow me to easily upgrade the cable (although it can be done, the whole arm has to be recabled though), however, I think Rega used high enough quality cable to get it right the first time.

KF

Just like anything else, there are pros and cons about things. Ideally the phono cable should have no connections from the headshell all the way to the phono preamp. However, this limits you to either the factory cable or one that is a continuous run aftermarket cable, of which there are few. The factory cable on a Graham is probably a good one, but the Robin is their lowest priced arm, so there will be some corner-cutting.

The dealer is covering his bases, because by recommending a cable upgrade, he can make some money, and he can tell you that "he tried to tell you" if you come back later looking for an upgraded cable.

That said, at the Robin's price point, you probably could benefit from a cable upgrade, but it would be wise to research it yourself first, instead of making a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Tok20000 -

When you say no breaks, is there not a solder joint at the base plug, as my RB600 has? I thought that qualified as a break in the cable.

Only reason I ask is I am suffering from a short at the solder joint, and am recabling with Vandenhul silver while I'm repairing.

Tim

Tim,

I am a vinyl newbie, and I was under the impression that the RB1000 tone arm had no breaks in the cable. I might be wrong, you may be right, but I am not 100% sure either way.

I was assuming (there I go doing the ASS U ME thing) that since the RB1000 did not have a phono box that it plugged into that the cable in the arm was continuous with no breaks.

One thing: Rega's website does not address this issue at all. They do say this about the RB1000: 'Do not try to rewire this arm.'

Anyone else shed some light on this?

KF

If you listen to Naim, all line level signals and especially lower level signals should really be going through DIN connectors, which they use, since RCA plugs, no matter how good the cable, tend to reflect signal back and forth and cause smearing. I don't know whether this is true or important, but it's at least possible.
Trouble is, you'd have to get a NAIM setup to get the DINs (of course).
Unless you are unhappy with the sound, buy more records instead. The tonearm cable will make only very subtle differences, and not necessarily for the better.

Boy I love to hear the sweet sound of "buy more records instead"! How much anxiety can be injected into listening to music? To fret over whether one of the better tone arms available can be made better with a new cable is JPN. Relax listen to the tunes. From the mid-fi trenches, good day.