Man this is frustrating

A great deal can be had on two 1 meter pairs of Audioquest Columbia interconnects at Music Direct. Retail $1000.00 for 2 pair. On closeout, $500. Here’s the link:  https://www.musicdirect.com/equipment/audioquest-columbia-interconnects-pr

Whatever cable you buy that is brand new and for the turntable to phono preamp, try to find a way to burn it in elsewhere with regular 500mv-2v rms signals.

Tiny phono signals will never burn an audio cable in. never in this lifetime. This means any used phono cable is also suspect and probably not burned in.

TONEARM WIRING IS THE MOST GUILTY. Or tonearm cables terminated in DIN connectors, for the tonearm proper.

So the burn in has to occur via other means. Also, not to use burn-in hardware to do so, unless you can verify that after the given cable burner is used on a cable..that further changes will not occur in normal use (simply as this is the way the given cable burner is expected/known to function).

This needs to be done as a cable is usually first a bit sparkly and overly open in a very blunt fisted way, or said differently..overly expressive at the top at the same time it is obscuring real detail in the micro-fine transient spacial cues area. Crunchy, not clean.

Wow! Listen to that huge space!, we say when we put in the (actual) new cable....No, it’s crap and it’s destined to disappear and a more ’true’ space will reappear, later on.

Then (as the sparklies fade), the cable begins to sound dark at about the 20-30-40-60 hr area of burn in time..then it goes back to a more corrected Natural expression where no false detail is added to the highs and the dark obscuring bits go away..and the cables are generally nearing their proper balance as you get to beyond the 100hr mark of use and burn in.

This is VERY important for phono cables... as..if they are off ...and off in their sound qualities forever (signal is too small to ever burn the cable in), it will result in you trying to correct or adjust for what is a skewed lie, right at your source point of sound/signal creation.

This will cause you to build up a skewed and crap sonic scenario ....to fix a mistake that is unrealized and right at the heart of your system.

Something that could have been prevented with a small amount of forethought and correct action.

This is important to me, on a personal level, and business level...as this is the sort of problem that makes people think a particular item.. an amp or source device or cable is either too bright or too dark and what not...as sometimes, or even most times...people are not doing things correctly and are making sonically skewed audio systems. Then blaming it on the things that are not at the heart of the issue... so it's going to be a circular ride for them. Forever.

We all make mistakes, all the time, and this one really needs to not be committed, as it is a critical one -- in the world of analog audio LP endeavors.

The Cardas Cross phono and a set of Cross interconnects used would fit that budget and would be a great combo as you upgrade table later if so desire, also the VPI phono is a great choice as it is wired with the same wire in your table/arm.

What make and model is the cartridge that you have? And how long do the cables need to be, especially the one connecting the turntable to the phono stage?

If it is a low output moving coil cartridge, the lower the cable’s capacitance (which is proportional to length) the better. If it is a moving magnet cartridge, that may or may not be the case depending on the particular cartridge.

Also, others who may respond should note that the phono stage in question costs approximately $250, while providing both LOMC and MM compatibility.

Regards,
-- Al