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Petra Cable for phono interconnects

Reviving the Petra thread

Hey ya'll,

I finally got around to getting a set of Petra cables to redo my Yamaha TT, I got the cables form great deals, the link Hakaplan had in the first post of this thread, and I have to say that while I love the cheap nature of these things, is the quality supposed to be suspect?

I mean, I rubbed the metal ends and the green paint just kind of brushed off, and then I unscrewed the metal sleeve and it was just for show? I mean, I just don't know if these are Petras or not, they aren't identified as any kind of cable, just made in China. If these are the right thing, that is cool - I will defer to your much greater experience, I just wanted to confirm.

Thanks!

K
 
pfoushee said:
Is there a problem running 12-15 ft. cables?
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For turntables? They should be kept as short as possible, preferably under 6 feet. With the Petras or a low capacitance cable (the Petras are 17pF/foot) you could probably get away with 10-12 without any problems. Too high capacitance can cause roll off on the high frequencies.

For other components, not a problem. They have line level signals which are not sensitive to capacitance.
 
Kriton said:
Hey ya'll,

I finally got around to getting a set of Petra cables to redo my Yamaha TT, I got the cables form great deals, the link Hakaplan had in the first post of this thread, and I have to say that while I love the cheap nature of these things, is the quality supposed to be suspect?

I mean, I rubbed the metal ends and the green paint just kind of brushed off, and then I unscrewed the metal sleeve and it was just for show? I mean, I just don't know if these are Petras or not, they aren't identified as any kind of cable, just made in China. If these are the right thing, that is cool - I will defer to your much greater experience, I just wanted to confirm.

Thanks!

K
Click to expand...

Yes, they are the Petras. They're not fancy by any means, but they do the job and the cable itself is well put together. Yes the metal sleeve is for show and for identification. For people with jacks very close together, being able to remove the metal sleeves is a plus.
 
Agree with Howard. The cable is the objective. Some phono Petra users promptly discard the interconnects in favor of ones of their choosing. The rub is that making a new, clean-looking phono connect out coax is not so straightforward or intuitive. An old cohort of mine from another site posted up a pic series of his re-termination of Petra cables a good while back, I'll try to run them down and see if he'll give permission for their use here.

- Mario
 
I still haven' rewired my YP-D8 witht he Petras I got from Ian (Thanks Ian), but I need to as I find I have to flex and push the old RCAs just right to get the hum out. The problem is the Petras are SO friggin stiff!! Might have warned a fella. How are you supposed to get a strain relief on the cable where it comes through the plinth? Just jury rig something?
 
??

So these Petra cables are actually meant to be component video cables?? or am I seeing the wrong link on the first page? I really need new cables for my pioneer pl-55 since the ones on there are original and only like 1m in length, which is a little too short. Some of you are describing getting these cables to be hard wired into your TT's. Since mine has interconnects to use what every cable I want, would these be a good choice or are there specific benifits of hard wiring? Im kinda a noob at turntables since i'm only 19 so i like hearing from people who have experimented with different cable types.
Thanks!
Cameron
 
sansuimancam said:
So these Petra cables are actually meant to be component video cables?? or am I seeing the wrong link on the first page? I really need new cables for my pioneer pl-55 since the ones on there are original and only like 1m in length, which is a little too short. Some of you are describing getting these cables to be hard wired into your TT's. Since mine has interconnects to use what every cable I want, would these be a good choice or are there specific benifits of hard wiring? Im kinda a noob at turntables since i'm only 19 so i like hearing from people who have experimented with different cable types.
Thanks!
Cameron
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I assume you mean that yours has jacks to plug in whatever cables you like. The Petra cables I referred to are made to be video component cables, but work very well as turntable cables because they are low in capacitance. For that reason you could use the 6 foot cables without any problems. The only reason people are hard wiring them is that the old ones were that way. If yours has jacks, that's great--take advantage of the ease.
 
Been using component video cables for audio for some time. They're cheap enough (cheaper than boutique cables) and do a great job if you need to go a little further between components. For line level signals, you can easily go 12 feet. :)
 
petra

Thats awesome to know! just put in an order for the Petra cables. shipping was more than the the item though.:thumbsdn: Since i'm going to be cutting them to smaller lengths does anyone have any recommendations for rca interconnects? should i just look for gold plated or are there certain ones that are better/worse?
thanks!
Cameron
 
I can't find anythng that disputes using low capacitance video cables for low voltage audio signal. Guess you guys are right. I thought the important thing was matching the impedance of the cartridge output.
 
sansuimancam said:
Thats awesome to know! just put in an order for the Petra cables. shipping was more than the the item though.:thumbsdn: Since i'm going to be cutting them to smaller lengths does anyone have any recommendations for rca interconnects? should i just look for gold plated or are there certain ones that are better/worse?
thanks!
Cameron
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Some people IMO delude themselves into thinking that one is better than another. I use the cheapest ones I can find. Make sure you apply heat carefully so as not to melt the plastic that separates the two channels. Check out markertek.com and see what they have.
 
hakaplan said:
Just wanted to report on my experience today. I have a Sony PS-X70 turntable, quartz, direct drive, full auto, carbon fiber tonearm with litz wire, which already sounded very good, but had an intermittent hum problem, especially with different headshells. The original Sony interconnects still looked good and remarkably decent quality including gold-plated connectors, so I was skeptical as to whether I'd hear significant sound improvement.

Bought some of these cables in 12ft lengths with nice-looking gold-plated RCA connectors at each end. They come in a group of three so cut in half they would make ICs for 3 tables. These are low capacitance (17pF/foot) and could probably be used in up to maybe 6 feet lengths, but I was paranoid about losing sound quality so I kept the length to about 4 feet. I simply cut them at slightly over 4 feet, unsoldered the old cable from the pc board inside, soldered these in place using heat shrink tubing over the exposed sheilding wire, and soldered in a separate ground wire.

After hooking up everything and turning on the power I was at first amazed that I had done this right the first time. It never fails that I either forget something or solder something backwards, etc. Well, needless to say, the hum was gone. And then the sound quality was markedly improved. Smoother, more pronounced bass, fuller and clearer sound all around. As good as I thought this table was, I had always felt that I was a bit distant from the music, but now it feels closer or more up front.

Now I can see why these are so highly regarded at Vinyl Asylum. For an insanely cheap investment, the improvement is considerable and it's likely that throwing that much more cash at it would result in diminishing returns, at least at this component level. I would heartily recommend redoing any vintage turntable with these cables, especially if it's as easy a job as this was. I used the following place to purchase mine:

http://www.sjgreatdeals.com/pet10-5012.html


Howard
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It's my understanding that the guts of the PS-X5 and PS-X7 are very similar. Do you know if this is true for the PS-X5 and PS-X70? I ask because I'm planning on replacing the cables on my PS-X5 and was hoping that you might have some shots of the innards of your table and how you connected the new ground wire. Pics would just give me an idea of what I'll be looking at before I actually open her up.
 
inonjoey said:
It's my understanding that the guts of the PS-X5 and PS-X7 are very similar. Do you know if this is true for the PS-X5 and PS-X70? I ask because I'm planning on replacing the cables on my PS-X5 and was hoping that you might have some shots of the innards of your table and how you connected the new ground wire. Pics would just give me an idea of what I'll be looking at before I actually open her up.
Click to expand...

No, it's not similar at all. And I just sold my X6 so I can't take pics--sorry. Typically the cable wires and ground wire are soldered to a circuit board, all at the same location. It shouldn't be difficult to take off the appropriate bottom section of this turntable and you should be able to find it. On the other hand it may be necessary to access the area from underneath the platter. You have to see where the cables enter and determine that. The service manual for the X6 is on vinylengine and has some pics, but it's not much of a help for this.
 
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