Turntable Interconnects...
- Thread starter sbparks
- Start date
hakaplan
Needs professional help
No the impedance is not an issue. Capacitance between other sources is not an issue, and the length of the cable is not limited. 34pf is not low, but is passable. Keep the leads to 3 feet or less and you're probably okay. Seriously, though, consider the Petra cables I mentioned. They are 17pf/foot and so cheap. And it's so easy--just cut off one connector and solder. And you can have longer leads if you want. Why go throught the hassle of making your own? I bought a bunch of 6' cables to use as interconnects for aux devices, and a bunch of 12', each of which makes two pair of turntable interconnects--you simply cut them in half (and then a little shorter). It's so economical, and these have gotten a lot of praise.outlawmws said:
Brian4561
Active Member
Ok, cool. So it doesn't matter if I am using higher capacitance interconnects for my CD, DVD, tuner, etc? That's good--I like the feel of the Canare star quad and it seems to sound pretty good too.
For the TT, I ordered a low-capacitance cable from Blue Jeans. They list the capacitance of their stereo interconnect as 12.2 pF/ft. That was the best capacitance value I found out there.
For the TT, I ordered a low-capacitance cable from Blue Jeans. They list the capacitance of their stereo interconnect as 12.2 pF/ft. That was the best capacitance value I found out there.
Lefty
Super Member
For the phono newbies that might read this post we should explain the reason that low phono interconnection cable capacitance is important. The phono cartridge is magnetic transducer that requires a specific external matching capacitance for proper flat frequency response.
47pf was one standard matching specification as I recall. So inside the phono preamp circuit there is a capacitor wired between each channels hot center conductor and ground to satisfy the cartridges loading requirement. Any cable connecting the TT to the preamp will have a certain amount of capacitance between it's center conductor and it's shield conductor.
This capacitance will increase with length, so many pf per foot. This cable capacitance adds to the loading capacitor that is already in the phono input loading capacitor. Too much total capacitance will cause a decrease in frequency response starting at the highest frequencies and working down. So that is the reason for desirability of having as short or as low a cable capacitance per length as possible.
I guess another more difficult solution would be to have a test tone record and by measuring actual FR one could change the input loading capacitor for a perfect match. However that would probably be only perfect (to the limit of the measurement accuracy) for that specific cartridge as I'm sure there is some amount of variation between makes and models of MM carts.
Lefty
47pf was one standard matching specification as I recall. So inside the phono preamp circuit there is a capacitor wired between each channels hot center conductor and ground to satisfy the cartridges loading requirement. Any cable connecting the TT to the preamp will have a certain amount of capacitance between it's center conductor and it's shield conductor.
This capacitance will increase with length, so many pf per foot. This cable capacitance adds to the loading capacitor that is already in the phono input loading capacitor. Too much total capacitance will cause a decrease in frequency response starting at the highest frequencies and working down. So that is the reason for desirability of having as short or as low a cable capacitance per length as possible.
I guess another more difficult solution would be to have a test tone record and by measuring actual FR one could change the input loading capacitor for a perfect match. However that would probably be only perfect (to the limit of the measurement accuracy) for that specific cartridge as I'm sure there is some amount of variation between makes and models of MM carts.
Lefty