Tonearm rewiring
The most cartridge clips are worthless. This is in particular very annoying by not removable headshells. The best clips are made by Clearaudio. By possible rewire one need to asses the state of original wire. if those are not corroded (copper) then no rewire is needed. The wire myth is not only present by speaker wire but also by tonearms wire. |
I did the same thing to my Pro-Ject Xtension 10. I had to then buy a good HOT soldering iron, I also used pure silver solder and placed just a dab on the clip, then using the iron you melt the insulation on wire back enough to expose a little bare wire, heat clip with iron place bare wire on clip when hot, let cool a few seconds, Good! Now finish with a piece of plastic electrical tape folded over clip and bare wire, using iron gently, briefly, touch the sides of tape to shrink wrap the connection. YEAH! its Micro surgery. I have moved on to a different table because of these awfully difficult wires and clips because I do like to change cartridges. Matt M |
I’ve rewired 4 or 5 arms over the years. Not just to replace
old wire, but to change the wiring design — namely, one continuous run from
cartridge output pins to preamp input RCAs. This eliminates, depending on the
arm, 6 or 8 solder-joints and plug-connections. A bit of the signal is lost at
each of these discontinuities; a single unbroken wire restores these losses.
Improvements were always obvious and dramatic with every arm I rewired. Best example was a Linn Ittok vs SME 309. I was happy with the Ittok, enough so to have two. Then I got the 309 — I’d always lusted for that elegant series from SME, and though it wasn’t the TOTL ‘V’, it was great. Clearly better than the Ittok. No contest. I rewired one Ittok as described above — a single wire from start to finish (X 4, two per channel). In a direct comparison, I was surprised that the Ittok was now clearly better than the 309. I’d expected improvement, but it was so dramatic I sold the 309, though I hated to part with it, having coveted it for so long. The ‘mythical’ sound quality isn’t due to the wire, it’s the single unbroken signal path. It’s important that both were good arms to start with — mechanical quality of both was superb. A badly made arm would not yield such significant rewards. I also compared the rewired Ittok to my stock Ittok — its superiority was even more obvious. I didn’t use ‘mythical’ wire, in Nandric’s phrase, just good thin copper, 33 gauge as I recall. Whether mythical wire would be even better, I can’t say. I did rewire an arm once with Van den Hul monocrystal silver wire (mythical), but it was so brittle it broke almost every time I changed cartridges — it was so maddening I didn’t care about its sonics. I still have some, and wouldn’t hesitate to use it in an arm with removable headshells, because once installed you never have to touch it. I have 15 feet of Cardas 34awg tonearm wire waiting in the drawer, enough for three more 9” arms — I just haven’t had an arm for it yet. I didn’t buy it because it was Cardas (mythical) but because it was readily available. The Clearaudio clips N recommends look great but I haven’t tried them. I use the ‘P-clip’ design derived from the computer industry. They’re terrific. Connectivity standards in the computer world are extremely high, because a failure can cost a company millions — or start World War 3. They also easily fit a wide range of pin diameters — no need for surgery to make them tighter or looser, so you never break them off — a major hassle avoided. Cardas sells them for serious money, but Radio Shack offered the same clips, 25 of them, for pennies. Alas, RS is no longer around, but they’re probably easily found online. Best of luck with your project. I hope this was of some help. |
@bimasta, We all make ''inductive generalisations'' based on our (limited) experience. Those are not logically valid statements. My ''generalisation'' about Clearaudio clips are made in this way. Alas those are pretty expensive So I am very curious about your discovery of ''P-clips''. The ratio of our forum consist in such discoveries and sharing such information with other members. Whatever one thinks about (different) wire is different question. I own many carts and many headshells so those damn clips are my primary worry. I hope someone can provide a picture of those ''P-clips'' so we will have some idea about their looks. . |
Dear @arcamguy: Obviously that you have a very good opportunity to improve the quality performance levels in your tonearm. Rewiring always makes a difference for the better. Here it's a good rewiring source: https://www.originlive.com/products/upgrading-any-deck-or-arm/tonearm-upgrades-modifications-overvie... Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS, R. |
@bdp24 I'm really excited to send the TT to them; I'm looking forward to what they do. Unfortunately, the cartridge upgrade will have to wait, thanks to the "check engine" light that popped up this week on my car: a couple thousand puts the cartridge into next year; in the meantime, I'll have them reinstall the Goldring, which doesn't even have 200 hrs on it. They'll do a much better job than the online dealer I bought the MMF 7.3 from. Audio Element will do the full Cardas rewiring of the arm, so I'm really looking forward to the upgrade I'll get. |
arcamguy, this may only help you in the future, I agree with stringreen. I've been in this hobby for decades and never abandoned vinyl playback. In spite of most instructions to the contrary, I learned it is safer and easier to attach the wires to the cartridge pins before mounting the cartridge. For me that is even more important with fixed headshells. And of course leave the stylus guard on until you reach the point of setting overhang, offset, and VTF. For the present, no doubt Berdan will do a great job. Enjoy the results. |
Get the tonearm wires from stereo-lux. Their finewire C37 cable is one of the best out there for tonearm wiring. The designer can supply you a direct continuous wire from the cartridge to phono or just a tonearm internal cable. Note that his cables are used in some of the best tonearms out there (Reed, Durand, Thomas Schick etc). Contact mail@stereolux.de |
Rewiring a tonearm is not a casual endeavour as Matt Miller suggests. It does require a specific type of wire for both good conductivity and flexibility where it passes from the arm through the pivot and through the plinth to prevent it from causing torsional mechanical resistance to the motion of the tonearm. Also, the “p” clips that another member suggested are not suitable for this task, as they provide very tiny contact area, and are meant for applications where precision is not a requirement. Small-signal devices usually benefit from litz wire, where each conductor (strand) is individually insulated with a material that sublimates at soldering temperature. In my case, I’ve rewired tonearms with KAB-USA’s silicone-jacketed litz wire, which is extremely flexible. A challenge with silicone insulation is that it doesn’t readily melt when exposed to a hot soldering iron, so a 33AWG wire stripper is required, along with great care to avoid cutting any of the 37 ultra-fine strands. With the wire successfully stripped, it must then be tinned before attempting to solder to the clips and the interconnect. For this task, I first dip the stripped end in rosin flux, the use a solder pot to simultaneously remove the litz insulation and tin the wire. Finally, I use a small amount of flux and solder the tonearm wire to each clip with 63/37 solder and then apply clear heat-shrink tubing (never use electrical tape) to reduce stress on the connection. This method requires a very fine tip soldering iron (I use a Weller WESD-51) and a good magnifier lamp, along with a set of “helping hands” which are alligator clips attached with articulated arms to a weighted base. |
