CUTTING DOWN A TONEARM CABLE

Dear @millercarbon ​​​​​@czarivey 

1. Cables are coiled up and messy

2. Nothing to do with my understanding Re capacitance - that was my question - does shortening cable cause any such issue in the forums experience

3 I asked the forum to ‘do the mathematics’ coz i do not have the expertise

This problem came up because I had to try and unpick the end of a tonearm wire so there was sufficient space between left and right channel physically because of the layout on my phono stage. One channel works and the other one doesn’t I am therefore looking to Re-terminate at a shorter length and getting someone more dexterous to do the work. Btw I previously got manufacturer to resolve this and it didn’t work…

The shorter the cable the better. Do not reuse the RCAs. Canare makes the best RCAs. If the inner conductor will not solder it is litzed. The pros deal with this by holding the end of the wire in a solder bath which burns the laquer off and tins the wire. You can accomplish the same by carefully heating the end of the wire with a torch. Some people try to scrape the lacquer off. This never works well and frequently damages the wire. 

If you are using a MC cartridge capacitance is never an issue. Lower capacitance will make some MM cartridges brighter but it is really high capacitance that is the problem as it will roll the high end off.

Good for you! I always use the shortest connection possible. It makes for the cleanest installation and the best sound.

You could have made the issue clear from the beginning.

Is this correct?

1. this has nothing to do with a factory din or rca connector.

2. you need to desolder and resolder INSIDE a phono stage?

3. you will get someone competent to do the work

4. existing cable is ’inconveniently’ too long, While desoldering/soldering you want to shorten it to ___ (leave yourself enough slack)

question: any guidance on length?

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btw, title says cable (singular), in post you said too much on cables (plural). in that case, other cables: they do involve din or rca connections? 

are these expensive cables? 

Canare connectors?

I read/feared tales of ideal length for tonearm cables - something to do with capacitance

@lohanimal A good tonearm cable will be low capacitance. But I would not be concerned about shortening one, because when you reduce the capacitance (which will happen when the cable is shorter) you reduce the problem which the capacitance causes.

If you want to know more, in a nutshell the capacitance of the cable interacts with the inductance of the cartridge to cause a high frequency resonance. If you have a moving magnet high output cartridge, this resonance can be just inside the audio band (causing brightness) or just above it (causing phase shift, which the ear interprets as brightness, so essentially the same thing). By reducing the capacitance of the cable, that resonance is shifted to a higher frequency and so becomes less audible.

If the cartridge is a low output moving coil, then the resonance is so high as to be considered radio frequencies- and so shortening the cable will have no audible effect.

Either way you're better off, so if you can solder well, have at it!