SUT Interconnects
What cables have you tried between an MC SUT box and 47K MM phono stage? What was your favorite?
I’ve tried the AudioQuest upper-line "normal" ineterconnect cables (Sky, Fire) - great cables in other slots - but very colored coming out of a SUT. Not great performance. I assume that at 1.0m+ lengths, their capactitance is far too high for this application. I’ve tried 0.5m runs of Wind & Niagara (a bit lower in their "normal" IC line, slightly smaller guage wire and less shielding to boot) and got better results. However, my best results by far are with a 0.5m AQ WEL Signature LP phono cable (optimized for low capacitance phono applications). I’ve also tried the Bob’s Devices custom cables, 0.7m, both copper and solid silver versions - these have good performance (particularly the silver), but are more on the level of the 0.5m Niagara, still short of the WEL LP.
The problem I have is that the WEL LP is quite spendy, and I want a 2nd good SUT cable for a 2nd arm & SUT setup. Looking for more reasonably priced options. I’ve had excellent results with a Synergistic Research Foundation phono cable on a tonearm (DIN plug), and wonder how a short all-RCA run of it might do off a SUT (also interested in the Atmosphere X series). Any experience with SR or other cables off a SUT would be appreciated!
My Fidelity Research FRT-4 has a captive cable, with verry common rca connectors and a ground wire. I sometimes think of changing it, but it sounds great, gives me no trouble, doesn't lose contact or give intermittant balance issues like some flexible jacks like these do. Entre ET-100 lets you use your own cable.
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Captive, low capacitance, short length leads are best, sometimes known as "flying leads", because the leads are directly soldered to the transformer secondaries inside the chassis of the SUT, at that one end. That way you at least eliminate an RCA jack and plug in the signal path and effectively minimize capacitance. But if you must traverse a distance of 3 ft or greater from cartridge to phono inputs, it would be preferable to have shortest possible (flying) leads on the cartridge to SUT side and make up the remaining distance on the SUT to phono inputs side. |
The "flying leads" makes sense, thanks. But as far as optimizing total run length to a phono 47K input - I always though it was more critical to keep capacitance low AFTER the SUT, rather than BEFORE the SUT, becasue of the after-SUT’s capacitative load supposedly "reflecting back times the sqaure of the turns ratio" (i.e. the opposite of what happens to load resistance)? I don’t pretend to understand the electrical theory behind this. What’s the theory behind prioritizing the tonearm to be as short as possible? My tonearm cables are all the "standard" 1.2m, but I definitely don’t need all of that length. |
@mulveling , The advantage of making your own cables is being able to keep them as short as possible. If you use a high bandwidth balanced cable like Canare Da206, use the two inner connectors for signal wires and connect the shield only at one end ( I usually use the load end), you will have a better cable than you can possibly purchase. You will also save a pile of money which you can spend on music. |
