Detachable Head shell or Not?

Dear @jafox  : What a post !, a learning one. Thank's for sharing your valuable experiences down there.

Btw, a wealthy audiophile that as you owns tube electronics and I think with" heavy " first hand experiences on IC phono cable posted that the AQ Leopard ( even that's the AQ top of the line. ) is the way to go down there.

Against the Sthealth is really inexpensive and in some ways its design is really interesting to read and maybe to make a test in your system:

https://www.audioquest.com/cables/analog-interconnects/tonearm-cables/leopard

R.

@jafox 

You raise some great points. I look at cables a little differently to most. I assume all cables degrade the sound, and therefore when I assess cables I am looking for the cable that does the least damage - least damage in terms of transparency, noise floor, coherency. I see too many people using cables as a bandaid to a system issue - check the forums "looking for a cable with good bass..." or other criteria.

With regard to phono cables it gets a little bit interesting because there is no one size fits all. Electrically the tonearm cable is part of a tuned system that includes the cartridge and the receiving device - be it phono stage, moving coil set up ( transformer or other active mc step up ). Therefore unless everyone has the same cartridge/phono, experiences and opinions will vary, as they do.

I note that neither Audioquet or Stealth provide any electrical specifications for their phono cables - no capacitance figures, no data on phase shifts at varying frequencies etc etc.

So for most folk phono cables are a lottery - suck it and see. And in many situations I have seen folk come to grief because they have a cable bandaid, they upgrade their system and the cable bandaid doesn't work with the new gear.

For my own system I use 2 phono cables depending on cartridge.

For MM's I use a custom Audioplan phono cable - silver, twisted pair, shielded  ultra low capacitance. This was a manufacturers sample never released to public - too expensive.

For MC's ( which is what I primarily listen to ) I use either MIT Oracle phono or some custom cables I have built myself using MIT Varilay wire as a builtin block from the 80's. They are very capacitive which is why they don't work with MM's.

I have a lot in the bin - Ikeda, Audio Tekne, Audioquest and many others in the parts bin. Most of these do too much damage. I have not heard the Hyperphono, the Audioquest Leopard is average, not particularly transparent, low level detail goes awol in my experience.

Finally we have to remember that listening preferences vary considerably from person to person, some folk want a nice smooth sound, some want zero noise, some want "fast zippy sound" - when I had an audio shop I heard it all.

My advice for any cable purchaser is audition in your own system, listen for musical coherence, low noise floor and transparency - do not focus on a specific attribute - and do not believe any reviews, use them as guides only.

Raul, 

Concerning Reed tonearms, a few years ago an audio dealer had a TT for sale that I wanted but it was sold just before I contacted that dealer.  I then bought the Triangle Art TT.  A year later, that same dealer had some Reed arms for sale.  I had read positive press on these arms.  Sadly once again, I hesitated and was too late to purchase one of those.

Earlier this month, this same dealer had one remaining arm in stock for sale that he will no longer carry.  This arm intrigued me enough for me to talk with him.  And ultimately I purchased this arm.  He offered to machine the mount ring for the arm tower and provide a spacer between the mount and arm to better handle any resonances.  These were offered to me at no charge; now that's great customer service!  Once I get this arm set up and live with it for some time, I will look to contact him again for advice on another arm ... perhaps a model that he now currently sells or that he has experience with, or some others on my mind.

As for Audioquest, after I read the rave reviews of their top IC at the time, I got one and tried it in my system.  It was one of the most dimensionally flat cables I had experienced.  No matter how tonally coherent, detailed, incredible degree of clarity,  etc., that a cable might have, if it truncates piano notes instantly, the cable is immediately dismissed.  Needless to say, I don't have a lot of excitement to try another Audioquest cable unless someone here can suggest a model.  However, I have an old Audioquest 7000 cartridge, re-tipped by the Andy at the Needle Clinic.  This cartridge is outstanding and just might be one of two that I end up running in a 2-tonearm system.

John

@frogman the description offered from a few added comments from myself, I think we are very close in our understanding of what a correct cable choice for our own systems can create.

 @dover 'I look at cables a little differently to most. I assume all cables degrade the sound, ( I formed this viewpoint when swapping out OFC cables to be replaced with OCC ) and therefore when I assess cables I am looking for the cable that does the least damage ( create the perception of being able to produce the the most honest rendition from my assessment ) - least damage in terms of transparency (to sense that there is an added level in the presentation, of being able to improve how the defining of the produced micro details, note envelope, attack, dynamics and imaging are being perceived, when these sonic traits are being realized the Soundstage takes on a whole new meaning ) the  noise floor ( to realize the former valued sonic traits the noise floor will be noticeably quieter and much less of a detractor, as once the noise is known, the coloration it will produce, can draw the attention and can become quite undesirable ), coherency. (when the Frequency Range sound correctly balanced between each other ands there is no on area taking a dominance, when this is being sensed as being a Honest Rendition, the performance during the replay can for some, including myself, become very satisfying )

I have always been happy with my system for over 15 Years, when it was still an analogue only system, and as it progressed to take on new source options in the digital format.

The devices chosen to assemble the system are pretty much the same, the choices made for the interfaces has been an evolving experience and has undergone changes as described.

The PC Triple C and D.U.C.C Wire in Cables has transformed the system to rendition my earlier sonic trait descriptions to a level I did not see developing.

I was quite alone in the quest for these cables, and now I have loaned a few types out the number of individuals in the UK are beginning to grow in numbers for the acquiring of them, some of these purchases are being made as a direct result of the demonstration offered, and others are made as a result of word of mouth recommendations and not from my mouth.   

    '

Dear @jafox  : I never tested Audioquest cables and my post came from other audiophile opinion.

As almost always we can say that the best IC cable is the one that works the best in that system link and that helps to achieve our targets in MUSIC reproduction quality levels. So, each one of us have an specific cadidate for " the best ".

Btw, I owned the AQ 7000Fe5 and agree with you of the AQ high quality level performance. The Fe5 was the top of the AQ line and the last cartridge they puts in the market. Was manufactured by Scan-Tech the same builder of Lyra cartridges.

It's good that you already found out that " best " IC cable in that specific system link and I hope that it works the same for you with your new tonearm.

R.