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.
