Kuzma: Do Tonearm Cables Make a Sonic Difference? You Decide

[Guest]

Franc sent me a link to this Michael Fremer article on AnalogPlanet. Using four different 4Points, wire options from Kuzma were recorded for listening: copper (CU), Cardas Silk, Monocrystal and Kondo.

What do you think?

[cpp]

I'm interested in some comments on this. a new tonearm cable could force a change of a phono cable which drives a endless cycle of reoccurring test. Not to mention tonearm and cartridge setups occurring over and over

Maybe it's a terminology issue between us - I thought "tonearm cable" and "phono cable" denoted the same thing.

[cpp]

Same thing carry on, brain fart here, no coffee when I posted that

[MylesBAstor]

Well I guess we could be referring to tonearm cable/wiring and phonocable. 😎

Another slippery slope. Should the tonearm wire and phonocable be from the same manufacturer? In some cases-the SAT and my old ET come to mind-you don't have a phonocable. Here the tonearm wire extends directly to the phonostage.

[Bill Hart]

Franc makes a double wire version that is a "standard variation" - one with wire of your choice with no interruption, and one with wire of your choice with a termination box, so you can add a stand alone cable if you choose. I have the original Cardas in Airline, never rewired it.

[mkuller]

Everything matters and the closer it is to the source, the more of an effect it can have. Yes, tonearm cable sound different.

[MylesBAstor]

And of course the minuscule signal levels here.

[MylesBAstor]

Yes but I would add that the difference in sound is related to electrical effects and could be cartridge dependent. See this thread especially post 10.

https://www.audionirvana.org/forum/t...-cables-matter

Also whether you run balanced or SE to the phonostage and the minuscule signal levels. Bill gave an excellent overview of the situation here.

https://www.audionirvana.org/blogs/a...r-audio-system

[cpp]

" MylesBAstor commented
06-11-2017, 11:07 PM


Well I guess we could be referring to tonearm cable/wiring and phonocable. 😎

Another slippery slope. Should the tonearm wire and phonocable be from the same manufacturer? In some cases-the SAT and my old ET come to mind-you don't have a phonocable. Here the tonearm wire extends directly to the phonostage.

You know I was wondering the same thing we talk about changing phono cables but these thin small wires from the cartridge start the process.

[cpp]

It depends.my VPI from the cartridge has those little wires that run through the tonearm and connect to a RCA block. From there a separate cable which in this case in the phono cable runs to phono stage. So no the cable ID"s you have noted are not the same thing on some turntables. When I change a phono cable its from the RCA block on the VPI to my phono stage its not the tonearm wires/cable loom, but they work together to perform the function of getting the signal to the phono stage. So although they denote the same and support the function its not the same cable. I haven't seen any "cartridge wire tonearm cable looms that a user could change out from the cartridge to say the RCA block.

My point is that all the claims of terminology equivalency use "tonearm wire" to make sense. And yes, there are tonearm wires that are tonearm cables - running all the way to electronics. And yes there are horses too dead to beat. . I'll say tonearm cables are phono cables but tonearm wiring is not.

[cpp]

"" I'll say tonearm cables are phono cables but tonearm wiring is not. "" I can live with that

[dan31]

It depends on the tonearm design. For me the tonearm cable is the wire from the cartridge to a RCA terminated block at the back of my tonearm. My phono cable is used to connect the RCA terminated tonearm wire to my phonostage.

[JCOConnell]

For me, I have the Graham 2.2 tonearm. The tonearm cable runs from the cartridge clips to the DIN connector at the rear of the arm. The phono cable runs from the DIN connector to the phono stage (or in my case, the head amp ).