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Vintage DIN phono cables, any good?

The question is about old DIN tonearm phono cables for the top of the line vintage Japanese tonearms. 
I wonder how good those old cables are compared to the mid priced new cables ?

For example an old Audio Craft, SAEC, Fidelity Research, SONY  cables made for their top of the line tonearms are good? It's easy to replace an old RCA connectors, but what about the cables? Some of them are silver and must be a good quality. 

Any thoughts? 
Thanks 
128x128chakster
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

My impression by the most Japanese tonearms ( I was tonearm

collector earlier) was /is that they all used Din 5 -RCA cables

provided by the same supplier. All of them with copper wire which

coroded as function of time. There are of cource exceptions but

the most of those cables are worthless. It is not difficult to make

our own if one can handle soldering bolt. One can then chose

among many obtainable wires. But one need to be cereful with

their dimensions. The wire need to fit in those (damn) Din 5

connectors (grin).

chakster's avatar
chakster OP
6,144 posts
 
@nandric do you mean corrosion of the old connectors or corrosion of the whole copper signal cable inside the isolation material? How about silver then?

If the old copper is corroded (just because it's old) then each time we have to fully rewire every vintage tonearm we have, but for some reason many of them sounds great in stock condition with original old cables. Why?   


nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

Dear chakster, I meant corrosion of the copper wire but assume

that everyone changed those old RCA connectors(grin). I also

stated ''with some exception'' by tonearm producers who made

their own phono-cables. For example Ikeda produced silver cable

which was available as separate and usually bought for the FR-66.

Micro and SAEC also produced or ordered , say, better cables

for their (more expensive) tonearms. But speaking in general

those old Din 5 cables are worthless despite the fact that our

dear chakster thinks otherwise.

chakster's avatar
chakster OP
6,144 posts
 
@nandric ok, did you re-wired all your tonearm collection?

I have rewired a few vintage tonearms, but the reason was a broken cable, not the upgrade. I already have expensive cryo treated cables, like the one which goes with my Reed 3P (from headshell pins to preamp) and others supplied with the best WBT RCA plugs etc. But some inexpensive vintage tonearms with removable headshells and DIN connectors in between are so good in stock condition that makes me feel a bit sceptical about rewiring. I think most of the new (expensive) phono cables are nothing special and this is the problem. I think $250-300 is expensive for a 1m phono cable. Just curious about cost effective alternative with the vintage cables.       
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

Dear chakster, There is some truth in the old Roman confusion

between the truth and the autority. Aristoteles still rule in some

social ''sciences'' with his autority. Well as Rauls best student

you should be sensitive for his argument. You of course know

why he refuse to buy any cart with inbuilt headshell. The reason

is corroded (headshell) wire. My own argument is about the

money. You stated that $250-300 is expensive for 1m cable.

But I guess that the most of your MM carts are more expensive.

I seldom use my MM carts while my MC carts are much more

expansive than the MM kind. Why should I then mess with

those old mediocre cables from the 80is?

BTW my SUT's adventure started recently. To start with I bought

Ikeda's  FR -3. He uses uitput cables instead of output connectors.

I wanted to change the connectors but was shocked with the

state of wire. So, it seems, even Raul is sometime right (grin).

One need to compare FR SUT's with, say, Denon AU-S1 to

see and hear the difference. Anyway I hope you deed not spend

mucho dollars for your speaker wire(grin).

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