phono cable

soundfreak1

OK I'm replacing the "rca" cables from the "board" to the RCA ends in my SL1700. Need some ideas as to the cable itself. Not going to audio quest or simular type premades. (Unless used and affordable.)however want decent wire. I can attach RCA'S my self so raw wire is OK or even possibly a good ic and cut one end off to attach to the wire board inside rhe table. Give me your suggustions please.

SCompRacer

I'd keep the coax that's installed and upgrade the RCA ends. There is a reason manufacturers used coax on turntable IC's. I still use coax IC's on my current air bearing linear arm table. I use stranded center conductor coax for my single ended (RCA) IC's.

If you do use regular wire or IC's they need to be low in capacitance and be shielded. High capacitance in a turntable IC will affect sound quality in a negative way.

I installed a pair of Vampire RCA's for coax cable on a Yamaha YP-D10 to get rid of the cheap plastic ones.

http://www.vampirewire.com/#!product-page/c20v7/1df3f5f8-5366-e751-8179-d9feb23732de

They do have a couple of different choices/price ranges.

http://www.vampirewire.com/

soundfreak1

The wire that Technics used was real cheep wire and it is fatigued by age (could be replaced by new comperable cable for about 12 bucks), however my attitude is whilst going to the trouble of replacing why not step up a bit (within reason and budget) just not sure type of wire options I have available.the one side rca conector is not an issue so much as they can easily be upgraded. The low impedance wire is more of an issue to me at this point.

SCompRacer

Check out Douglas Connection for DIY cabling.

http://www.douglasconnection.com/main.sc

soundfreak1

In ordering cable for diy cable what would be the description ( so i could call a. Distributor and order) the wire needed to make good phono cables?

voltz

If you are going to order some wire and connectors from Douglas connections I would pm Doug @helipilotdoug and talk to him about what your after and Doug will help you select the right stuff.

soundfreak1

Hears what I've found low capacitance coax, solid core, shielded audioquest ITA3/3 wire. At insane price of .75 per foothe (found a closeout deal) retails at 3.00 per foot in rolls only. (Found it as a left over , they have 300 feet left). Any input????

SCompRacer

There are two types of solid core coax. One's made with solid copper wire, one with steel wire that is copper coated. Since AC travels on the skin of conductor, the coated steel wire works great and is cheaper than solid copper core coax.

Solid core is going to be much stiffer to work with and harder to route in the rack than stranded center core. If using solid core I'd prefer the 100% copper wire.

Douglas Connection has Furez FZ18HDV Flexible RG6 Coaxial Cable at 78 cents a foot. Furutech FC-11 Coaxial digital visual cable is $33 per meter.

pitdogg2

Although it's been a good 25+ yrs since I had a turntable would Belden 1694 or Canare L5 work? I have always found them to be good wire. If it would work it may be very cheap as I may have extra in the closet.

SCompRacer

They would work, but IIRC those are both solid center conductor. Belden 1505F or Canare LV-77S is a common choice for IC's with flexible center conductor. Blue Jeans uses these. I use a different Belden stranded center coax for SE IC's, can't recall the number.

For inexpensive small diameter coax, I have stripped it out of older, good quality S Video cables. It has stranded center conductor. I would get two different colors of coax from each cable, depending on who made it. I use them to connect signal wires in DAC's.

soundfreak1

The ITA3/3 has a solid psc hyperlitz copper core (perfect surface copper) certainly stiffer than copper strand but not a problem for my purpose or installation. Also it is also a "mini coax with cl.3/ft4 jacket.

pitdogg2

Yes Rich I know for sure Canare is but I was thinking that the Belden might of been stranded. Any how I always thought that the Canare was very soft wire but it is a larger diameter cable.

SCompRacer

I had to look...Blue Jeans says the Belden 1694 is solid core. I had done quite a bit of research on coax when I started using it for my SE IC's.

https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/audio/index.htm

soundfreak1 wrote: »

The ITA3/3 has a solid psc hyperlitz copper core (perfect surface copper) certainly stiffer than copper strand but not a problem for my purpose or installation. Also it is also a "mini coax with cl.3/ft4 jacket.

Sounds good then!

Speedskater

SCompRacer wrote: »

There are two types of solid core coax. One's made with solid copper wire, one with steel wire that is copper coated. Since AC travels on the skin of conductor, the coated steel wire works great and is cheaper than solid copper core coax.............................................

There are more than two common types.
Copper
Copper Clad Aluminum
Copper Clad Steel
Silver Clad Copper
*********************************************
But in this case it's not AC that travels on the skin of the conductor. It's high radio frequency AC that travels on the skin of the conductor. The CCS cables are optimized for cable TV channel frequencies.

soundfreak1

Speedskater wrote: »

SCompRacer wrote: »

There are two types of solid core coax. One's made with solid copper wire, one with steel wire that is copper coated. Since AC travels on the skin of conductor, the coated steel wire works great and is cheaper than solid copper core coax.............................................

There are more than two common types.
Copper
Copper Clad Aluminum
Copper Clad Steel
Silver Clad Copper
*********************************************
But in this case it's not AC that travels on the skin of the conductor. It's high radio frequency AC that travels on the skin of the conductor. The CCS cables are optimized for cable TV channel frequencies.

[/quot

Not sure of the point you are making? Do you think this cable (ITA 3/3 won't conduct the audio freq from my cartridge? ??

soundfreak1

According to Audioquest this cable has the same specs and capability as their 300.00 tonearm cables. Not as sophisticated a jacket but same core and a little less shielding wraps.

Speedskater

soundfreak1 wrote: »

Not sure of the point you are making? Do you think this cable (ITA 3/3 won't conduct the audio freq from my cartridge? ??

Just correcting a incorrect post.
Of course it will conduct audio.

**********************************
In my earlier post, I missed the most common type:
Tin Clad Copper

cortico

Hi, Before selecting the cable, check the specs of your cartridge to see what is the optimum load.

As an example, I have replaced my turntable cable a while ago. I came to latter find out that I neglected the cable load and how come that may affect frequency response.

The canare star quad L-4E6S I used has a 45pF/foot of capacitance, great cable but capacitance is a bit high. My Shure M97XE cartridge optimum load is 200-300pf per chanel including phono imput an arm wiring.

Adding:
180pF, 4'phono cable.
30pf, tonearm wiring (allowance)
100pF, Marantz 2270 phono stage

The approximate load ended up in 310pf per channel. Not a big deal, But I ended up reducing the cables to 2' just in case since an higher capacitance will roll off high frequencies.

I hope this helps.

soundfreak1

Understand. Will find out how they work by next weekend as things go as of now.I have a distance issue so I'm hopping it will work ok. The math works out so we will see (or hear).