CUTTING DOWN A TONEARM CABLE

Let's think this one through. First you said you have too much length. But the only reason given has nothing to do with length. Nothing about having to coil it up, no room for yards of cable, nothing like that. Your whole "reason" seems to be some vague fear of "something to do with capacitance." That is not a need. That is a feeling.

You asked if there is any reason not to. Sure. Plenty. Phono leads are real finicky. It is real easy to make one noisy, real hard to make one quiet. You might do everything perfect, beautiful solder joints, put it back together, monster hum. No idea why or where it came from. Back you come looking for advice from the same guys who failed to warn you in the first place. Not me. Other guys.

The best reason to not do it really is there is nothing to be gained. But plenty to be lost. Whatever your lead is worth now, guess how much less it will be worth when sold as "I cut it down because of something to do with capacitance but I know what I'm doing trust me." 

Thanks. Pass. Future value: nada. 

MC your a party pooper! :-) Take the fun out of a fart. LOL

I’ve fixed a lot of hums, that’s for sure. But I don’t run 10 different kinds of Tonearms either. I’m a SME guy from way back. I ran a lot of Grados too, they were known to make noise. I fixed them all unless there was a cart winding failure. When I would inspect 90% of the time it was a very tiny frayed tube wire or a single stray just close enough to cause problems but almost impossible to see.

A sniffer will find it, if you screw up any ways.. I’ll find the schemo on how to build one.. They work great.. Can work for a noisy tubes too. What about that? Just  need to be able to check your work..

Dear @millercarbon ​​​​​@czarivey 

1. Cables are coiled up and messy

2. Nothing to do with my understanding Re capacitance - that was my question - does shortening cable cause any such issue in the forums experience

3 I asked the forum to ‘do the mathematics’ coz i do not have the expertise

This problem came up because I had to try and unpick the end of a tonearm wire so there was sufficient space between left and right channel physically because of the layout on my phono stage. One channel works and the other one doesn’t I am therefore looking to Re-terminate at a shorter length and getting someone more dexterous to do the work. Btw I previously got manufacturer to resolve this and it didn’t work…

The shorter the cable the better. Do not reuse the RCAs. Canare makes the best RCAs. If the inner conductor will not solder it is litzed. The pros deal with this by holding the end of the wire in a solder bath which burns the laquer off and tins the wire. You can accomplish the same by carefully heating the end of the wire with a torch. Some people try to scrape the lacquer off. This never works well and frequently damages the wire. 

If you are using a MC cartridge capacitance is never an issue. Lower capacitance will make some MM cartridges brighter but it is really high capacitance that is the problem as it will roll the high end off.

Good for you! I always use the shortest connection possible. It makes for the cleanest installation and the best sound.

You could have made the issue clear from the beginning.

Is this correct?

1. this has nothing to do with a factory din or rca connector.

2. you need to desolder and resolder INSIDE a phono stage?

3. you will get someone competent to do the work

4. existing cable is ’inconveniently’ too long, While desoldering/soldering you want to shorten it to ___ (leave yourself enough slack)

question: any guidance on length?

......................................

btw, title says cable (singular), in post you said too much on cables (plural). in that case, other cables: they do involve din or rca connections? 

are these expensive cables?