If you have tiny pliers something like in Leatherman pocket tool I’d carefullyGreat info and links, thanks! I opened them, looks like great stuff, the spark has been fueled to improve the cabling. Perfect mod for the table. And at a good time, get this - after the last loose cable incident, last night I was listening to an LP and noticed a buzzing hum during quiet passages, drove me crazy turning things on and off throughout the house, nothing. Finally directed my attention to the TT, dreaded the infamous hum I’ve read about but supposedly gone with this model, fiddled with the RCA cable in back of the unit and whamo, instantly gone. Strangely it wasn’t the ground cable. So, regardless of sound quality I’m going to replace all the cabling for the table, just to make sure it is absolutely right.
remove all cartridge clips and crimp them slightly more to make sure that they provide nice and tight connection to the cartridge pins. Be super careful not to rip them off the headshell and always use pliers when taking off and fitting back on. I’d also check carefully alignment and properly set-up VTF with tools to check and fix manufacturer or dealer negligent setup. If you go to turntablebasics.com, you’ll be able to find basic tools to properly align cartridge and tracking weight. With new wires I’d work on research first. I don’t know any market for outboard interconnects with thin gauge for turntable. Basically you’d want the same thickness of wires as going out from your arm on the interconnects. You’d also want minimal per-unit capacitance of wire, because for the MM cartridge it’s crucial and not so for MC. For your reference, find out the electrical parameters of the stock interconnects you’re using from manufacturer.
Years back they used to be available in conventional electronic stores with ground wire attached, now I’ve seen some on internet (needledoctor) at price tag 4x higher than your whole analogue setup. If you don’t want to tense your wallet and save a lot without loosing performance of your system, I use http://www.gepco.com/products/proav_cable/analog_audio/singdual_xband_F.htm. This cable is easy to fit safely onto the RCA jacks and provides low-to-no noise signal transfer with great dynamics. I’m sure that it will outperform your stock interconnects if properly terminated. For best results use http://www.parts-express.com/neutrik-nf2c-b-2-profi-professional-rca-plug-pair--092-114 Neutrik Pro-Fi connectors that are very easy to terminate and lockable.
I wonder if it would be a good idea to just do 1 long run from the cart to the amp and bypass the inner connection of tonearm to RCA?