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Max distance from turntable to amp using RCAs

C

chris lihou

New Member
I'd like to set up my turntable about 12ft from my receiver on a straight line, but more like 16ft-20ft to have the RCAs wind their way over to the spot where the turntable will sit.

So the setup will be turntable to phono preamp, phono pre to receiver. I've heard people say that your turntable should be as close as possible to your main amplifier (in this case the receiver), as well there's talk about signal degradation or noise using long RCA runs, but I don't know how true that is. The phone pre is a decent one - IFI Zen.

Does this seem like it'll be alright or a bad idea for sound quality?
 
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Just use short cables to the preamp and longer ones from there to the receiver and it should all be fine. Signal degradation or interference is more of a factor at the millivolt levels generated by the cartridge and less so after the preamp boosts it to a volt or two.
 
I agree with Monty.

Once I experimented with phono cable length using the very old tt cable to a cheap rca to rca adapter and cheap 12' cables. it worked perfectly. My guess is even a decent (Blue jeans Cable) 20' directly to the amps phono input would be fine too. Some recommend old rca video cables for their low capacitance.
 
The signal for phono is much lower than the signal from things like tape decks. Phono sections have audible changes when capacitance and resistance changes.

I echo the need to use low capacitance component video cables for interconnects. No more than 6 ft. If longer, get a phono preamp and put it near the turntable, with longer RCA cables to AUX in on the amp.
 
A lot of preamps only output 150-300mV when modern devices output 1-2V. The standard changed when cd players became available. I have a 10' run from a preamp and it's only a problem when I forget to turn the volume down when switching to another device. There are line level amps out there but you shouldn't need one.
 
3-4 feet without affecting capacitance load. Critical for MM and MI users. Best answer, run an external preamplifier/RIAA phono stage into a line input and use long RCA output cables from that if you need any more cable run from that. I see our OP has an external phono preamp, so he's set.
 
Montycat said:
He's already said he uses a phono preamp. Probably because his receiver doesn't have its own?
Click to expand...

In this case keep the phono preamp close to the turntable, then run his long RCA cables from the preamp output back to his Yamaha receiver's line input. Which is practical. Which doesn't degrade his sound quality, or add capacitance load which does.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
3-4 feet without affecting capacitance load. Critical for MM and MI users. Best answer, run an external preamplifier/RIAA phono stage into a line input and use long RCA output cables from that if you need any more cable run from that. I see our OP has an external phono preamp, so he's set.
Click to expand...

Ironically I want to effect capacitance. My Nagoka MP11 cartridge (as well as some others) likes a much higher capacitance then achieved through the tt's rca cables and phono preamp. 30' of standard rca cable would get closer to the correct capacitance for this cartridge for a flat frequency response curve. Some phono preamp's include selectable capacitance for this reason.

So the issue isn't capacitance so much as resistance and RF & EM interference. That's why I think 20', perhaps more of good quality (Blue Jeans cable) might still be fine for MM cartridges, maybe even MC into an amp or receivers phono input. We can at least try it. With a phono preamp placed close to the tt, we can certainly go 20' or more.
 
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charles 1973 said:
Ironically I want to effect capacitance. My Nagoka MP11 cartridge (as well as some others) likes a much higher capacitance then achieved through the tt's rca cables and phono preamp. 30' of standard rca cable would get closer to the correct capacitance for this cartridge for a flat frequency response curve. Some phono preamp's include selectable capacitance for this reason.

So the issue isn't capacitance so much as resistance and RF & EM interference. That's why I think 20', perhaps more of good quality (Blue Jeans cable) might still be fine for MM cartridges, maybe even MC into an amp or receivers phono input. We can at least try it. With a phono preamp placed close to the tt, we can certainly go 20' or more.
Click to expand...

Try it in that case, and just buy really good quality RCA cables like BlueJeans.
 
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