Interconnect Length
Balanced cables are all I would ever use for anything over maybe 2 meters or so…and that's a stretch. It seems like balanced phono cables are a great idea as phono cables can use all the help they can get. My old Linn had a crappy tonearm cable that was improved amazingly when I bought a Jelco/Mogami cable…no hum from the cable picking up dimmer crap, and simply cleaner overall sound. |
Here is the only way to run long runs of line level audio; you have to use a sending and receiving "Balun" plus Cat5e/6 cable http://muxlab.com/product/stereo-audio-balun Buy the baluns, and make your own RCA cable for higher quality. The Cat5e/6 cable can be bought in various lengths. There will be no degradation. The connection will be; RCA to balun (a few inches) 20 feet Cat 5e/6 to receiving balun, RCA (short) to line in. |
No more than 2m., it does not matters balanced or unbalanced IC cable. The cartridge very low level and delicated signal as more length it must run in a cable as more degradation suffers.You do want to keep the cable short, but not for the reasons stated here. The problem is capacitance. The cartridge has an inductance and the cable is a capacitance. Together they have a resonant frequency. Normally its in the RF region or ultrasonic. But with 20 feet it could well be in the audio range. The peak caused by this resonance is often over 30db!! If you really need to run the cable that far, consider a phono preamp with the turntable, and then run a line signal the distance. |
