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New RCA cables. Sound is horrible.

B

Bingy

New Member
Another mistake. It wasn’t broke. So I don’t know why I tried to fix it. Sanyo TP600SA turntable. Got it for free. It’s been amazing and the sound was incredible. But I always had this weird issue with the original RCA cables. They were grimey and old.

I bought new cables from eBay (Mogami) and solder them in and now the sound is terrible. Very dull and flat. The Capacitance at 1kHz - 27.0 pF/Ft.

I should have left the old cables on. But now what? The old cables are cut up and unusable. I desoldered the new cables and tried to resolder again thinking it was a bad connection. It’s not. Same terrible sound.

Anyone have any advice??!
 
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Sometimes it just takes time for new cables to come on-song.

I have experienced this with both interconnects and power cables.

I would not have believed it, had I not heard it. :yikes:

Like a lot of things - like too much Global Negative Feedback applied to an amp circuit - I doubt the problem is measurable with a scope... only measurable with our ears.

I know others will disagree, but that's my experience.
 
That's OK, You can call it "Break-In"... Some of us understand, Others will Never understand!

Give it a week, Play your tunes. Adjust your tone controls, Move the speakers around a little.

Helps if you build great turntables and speakers...

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Bingy said:
(...) Anyone have any advice??!
Click to expand...

Not knowing your horrible/terrible sound,

- first idea: Possible polarity mismatch. I.e., maybe you've got the polarity of one of the two channels the wrong way around - which would really produce a pretty terrible sound due to cancellation effects.

- second idea: Possible capacitance mismatch. Jugding that would require more info from your side, though. So which cartridge are you running into which phono stage (or pre-amp or integrated amp or receiver)? And which Mogami cable did you get, which length did you choose - and in case the specific cable type wouldn't be a regular coax with one inner conductor and a shield, but rather a cable type with two or even four inner conductors plus shield, which configuration did you choose?

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini
 
Sanyo TP600SA turntable

Audio-Technica AT-VM95E Cartridge​

Sony STR-6055 reciever

Mogami 2965, W2965, 5 feet.
  • DUAL - 75-ohm Coax construction
  • 2 x 24 AWG stranded Neglex OFC copper conductor
  • Insulation: XLCPE
  • Capacitance at 1kHz - 27.0 pF/Ft
  • DC Resistance, Shield - 0.0076 W/Ft
 
Bingy said:
Sanyo TP600SA turntable

Audio-Technica AT-VM95E Cartridge​

Sony STR-6055 reciever

Mogami 2965, W2965, 5 feet.
  • DUAL - 75-ohm Coax construction
  • 2 x 24 AWG stranded Neglex OFC copper conductor
  • Insulation: XLCPE
  • Capacitance at 1kHz - 27.0 pF/Ft
  • DC Resistance, Shield - 0.0076 W/Ft
Click to expand...

I am annoyed. And it’s not my imagination. The sound from my tape deck is 100x better. The sound from the turntable and new RCA cords is dull and flat.
 
Parts Express sells Mogami W2549 by the foot. I believe it's 23 Pf/Ft. I've used it (and Switchcraft 3502A RCA plugs) to make IC's, that work very well.

Also, there's lots of 'fake' products on ebay that give the appearance of being the real thing.
 
Bingy said:
Mogami 2965, W2965, 5 feet.
  • DUAL - 75-ohm Coax construction
  • 2 x 24 AWG stranded Neglex OFC copper conductor
  • Insulation: XLCPE
  • Capacitance at 1kHz - 27.0 pF/Ft
  • DC Resistance, Shield - 0.0076 W/Ft
Click to expand...


Are you using 5’ of cable from the turntable to the phono stage? That’s really long. This is the cable you want to keep as short as possible. 27pF/ft isn’t outrageously high but 5’ is certainly on the high side.
 
j_loop said:
Are you using 5’ of cable from the turntable to the phono stage? That’s really long. This is the cable you want to keep as short as possible. 27pF/ft isn’t outrageously high but 5’ is certainly on the high side.
Click to expand...
Yeah. It’s maybe 8 inches longer than the OEM. For sh’ts and giggles I soldered on a cheap pair of Amazon RCA cables to test. Same dull sound. Bass is really deep and treble is dull. Music sounds very compressed across genres.

Do we think 8 inches of extra cord is the culprit??? Say it ain’t so.
 
Bingy said:
Yeah. It’s maybe 8 inches longer than the OEM. For sh’ts and giggles I soldered on a cheap pair of Amazon RCA cables to test. Same dull sound. Bass is really deep and treble is dull. Music sounds very compressed across genres.

Do we think 8 inches of extra cord is the culprit??? Say it ain’t so.
Click to expand...
Extra length plus extra capacitance and maybe yes. You could be 2x the capacitance of the original cable at this point.

Fwiw my lowest capacitance cable is a radio shack special with piggyback plugs on one end. Not even a "phono" cable by intent. Installing jacks can be a good idea.
 
I installed Mogami W2549 cables on a SL-1300 with great results. The signal conductor is listed as 3.4 pF/ft. Have used W2549 as interconnect cables as well.

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Well. Cut the Mogami W2965 down about 12 inches. Same size as the old OEM. Same sound. Dull and compressed. Uff. Now what?
 
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