Refurbish Fidelity Research Tonearms

Capacitance in a cable (speaker or IC) is associated with a low "characteristic impedance", defined as the square root of the inductance divided by the capacitance. (Hence, the higher the capacitance, the lower the characteristic impedance, also hence, characteristic impedance is independent of length.) In my system, with a tube or SS preamplifier driving OTL tube amplifiers and those amplifiers driving full range ESLs, I consistently find that cables with low characteristic impedance sound best.  Commercially sold cables with highest characteristic impedance (e.g., some Nordost products) consistently have sounded awful in that system. I think it's an often neglected parameter that affects performance according to system component characteristics.  I also think that the advantage of direct wiring from cartridge to phono stage, especially with LOMC cartridges, mainly eliminating connectors in the signal path, outweighs the flexibility in choice of wire made possible by those connectors.

@lewm which interconnects and tonearm cable are you using?

Hello Dover,

thank you very much for your impressions. Agree, i also prefer the FR-64s with silver wire inside. It increases the natural sound by another step.
i did made no final decision but the regular refurbish will be done definetely. I want to hear what was going on when it was new, now with cartridges and phonostages of today or yesterday. I expect, it will amaze me (again).
The more I think about the direct wire option … yes, it should be another step up. Logical, smallest signal has to pass multiple contacts…
My phonocable in use is Audioquest Leopard, very well done, clever made
and a bargain compared to others which mainly are simply rebranded Regular cables.
Don’t know what brand mr. Mak uses … but When i go for direct wire, i think to get it in shotgun mode … i will see what we will do when the Arm is open.
i share your view of your named cables…
i want to keep that Arm, i learned so much with it about „modern highend“ … and it has a very high serial no >120000, could be one of the last …

Luisma, I am not anxious when it comes to cables. I long ago settled on what I liked well enough and have not felt the impulse to change or "upgrade" for at least two decades in my main upstairs system. In keeping with my finding that low characteristic impedance cables work best with my electronics and my chosen full-range ESLs, I have been using Goertz ICs, I forget the name, 21 feet of a balanced twisted pair of silver ribbons running side by side, which makes the IC capacitative.  Both my preamplifier and my amplifier are true balanced designs. For speaker wire, I use only 4 feet of Goertz silver ribbon speaker. Ralph Karsten advised long ICs and short speaker wire with his gear (Atma-sphere), and that’s what I do. Furthermore, the front end gear can be placed near my listening seat and far from the speakers, to avoid acoustic feedback. I don’t even know if Goertz still exists or still makes audio wires.

Richard Mak is my recommendation for Pricing, Quality of work and overall workmanship to bring back the tonearm like new. His Silver wire upgrade is also highly recommended.