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Looking for Tonearm Wire Suggestions

Isaac C.

Isaac C.

Cat Hoarder
Hello everyone, I plan on rewiring my NOS Syntec S-220 in the next couple of weeks because it has some faulty wiring which is causing some hum and noise. What is some recommended wire to use? Im looking for something easy to work with, can be stripped with a soldering iron or fingers, and less than $25/foot. I almost went with Cardas 4x33 litz then heard that it is difficult to strip and hard to work with. Any suggestions? Thanks!
 
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Isaac C. said:
Hello everyone, I plan on rewiring my NOS Syntec S-220 in the next couple of weeks because it has some faulty wiring which is causing some hum and noise. What is some recommended wire to use? Im looking for something easy to work with, can be stripped with a soldering iron or fingers, and less than $25/foot. I almost went with Cardas 4x33 litz then heard that it is difficult to strip and hard to work with. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Click to expand...

I’ve done several arms with the Cardas Litz wire. The insulation melts easily, and you do *need to tin the leads*, but after that it’s fine. I tried some other wire from an EBay seller and it was a *little* easier to deal with, but they are all going to be somewhat difficult.

I prefer the Cardas.
 
I would suggest going to this thread, page 8 (which the link should take you to) and scroll down to post #154, then after reading that, scroll down to post #160 and also follow the link provided there:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/headshells-leads-ta-wiring.872655/page-8

This will take you to an old thread by restorer-john, most appreciated forum member, who first reported on the matter, and provides a link to vinylengine that takes it even further as far as harvesting clips from certain computer parts.

You will not be disappointed if you are interested in saving your $$$ while getting some premium Litz wiring and cartridge clips of high quality to boot! The tinning of the wire is really simple if you follow the steps in the Cardas video that you can view here:


I'm not a great "solderer" and found it very workable once applying the superglue mentioned in the Cardas video. You do not need a soldering pot, although I suppose that would simplify matters even further. I simply applied the super glue as instructed and then heated the wire while applying flux first, then solder continuously until the end of the wire was nice and silvery.....tinned very well, in other words.

If you are like a lot of folks, those Apple earbuds don't work in our ears as they always want to fall out. I had several sets in a drawer that came with Apple products I had purchased (iPod, iPhones) and have enough on hand to make a bunch of tonearm wires when the need arises.

Good luck with your project and let us know how things turn out.

(PS - I made a wiring "loom" from this stuff for my Nottingham Analogue Studios Spacearm that needed re-wiring. I cannot tell the difference in sound between this and the original silver Litz wiring that was used from the factory.)
 
33awg_tonearm_main.jpg


This is what I'm looking at getting, the standard Cardas braided. The reason I asked about stripping it is because the ebay seller said the insulation is Teflon so its hard melt and not recommended because of toxicity. I just want to make sure everyone we are on the same page since there is different Cardas wire.
 
Not sure what the Ebay seller is selling there; I bought my wire from Take Five Audio.

I've used both the braided and shielded versions.
 
So should I try and use earbud wire, I have a set of them that are broke? I need enough for a 12" run.
 
I don't know if Apple Earbuds use suitable "wire". I tried other earbuds, thinking it was ideal for internal tonearm wiring.

However, it wasn't "wire" — it was a combination of thin nylon threads with a VERY thin copper "ribbon", no thicker than the copper plating on a circuit board. You can break it just by looking at it.

Earbuds get rough treatment, far rougher than the thin, pure wire safely installed inside an armtube. The "threads" in earbud cables are there for tensile strength to survive all the pulling and tugging earbuds get, without breaking that very thin conductive copper ribbon, and of course the threads cannot be soldered.

Apple may use real wire, I don't know. Cut it open and see.

Also, consider running the wire all the way from the headshell to the RCA inputs on your phono inputs — in other words, leave out all the breaks, plugs, and solder joints in between the Turntable and the Preamp. I've re-wired 4 arms using this method and in each case the improvement was dramatic.
 
Absolutely! What do you have to lose??? I had over 30" of wire from the Apple earbuds, not sure what you will have unless they are also Apple and then they will likely be the same length as mine. Just be a bit careful when taking them apart, but you should have no issues....go slow. I think you will really like what you find!

Whoops! Posted that before bimasta's post.....

I can tell you that the Apple earbuds DO have real wire in them from my personal experience, at least the ones I had.

Bimasta, interesting that you were able to run all the way from your headshell to your phonostage.....I had read that somewhere here before, perhaps your post in another thread, but found that in my case those tiny, very sparsely insulated wires tended to pick up more interference from other wires nearby and I was better off soldering them to the RCA cable that came with my tonearm which, of course, is very well shielded so once it leaves the base of the tonearm I had no more issues of the sort.
 
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This just my opinion, but I would think the wire used in modern headphones is probably better than 40 year old wire?
 
Off-topic but the apple earbuds must be decent because I left a pair in my jacket one time and they got washed and dried and still work (these are not the ones I'm using).
 
Upon close examination of the apple wire, each wire appears to have approximately 6 litz strands of at least 40awg or smaller wrapped around a nylon? core.
 
The line out voltage for earbuds/headphones is significantly greater than the output of even a high MM cart, so I guess they should work.
 
Isaac C. said:
That's my plan, straight through with as little connections as possible.
Click to expand...

As Nash pointed to above, the 1877 wire is very good, they make or did make a continuous run, cart to RCA plugs
although not everyone stock's it.

As I recall very low capacitance from an 1877 engineer.
 
Isaac C. said:
Upon close examination of the apple wire, each wire appears to have approximately 6 litz strands of at least 40awg or smaller wrapped around a nylon? core.
Click to expand...

Yep, that sounds about right as I recall.....the fussy part will be the tinning, but stay on it and flow lots of solder on the end after you put the superglue upstream about a half inch or so. You'll see the wires begin to take on the solder and then you will be able to attach the wires to your clips very nicely.
 
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