Detachable Head shell or Not?

Raul,

Starting around year 2000, I began to put many hours into cable evaluations.  I have great respect for the Stealth cable products.  In the mid-late 2000's, I owned two Stealth Indra ICs and many of their Dream power cords.   That was about the time when my system began to take on a significant gain in refinements.  But in time, I discovered other products that I preferred for one reason or another.  Back to your favorite topic ... trading off one set of distortions for another?  😊  I did not try other Stealth products such as the Sakra IC as its price was outside of my "budget".  But I was intrigued by the Stealth Dream speaker cables.

My cable evaluation results repeatedly came back with the most sensitive link as the IC from line stage to amp.  The second most sensitive link was the tonearm cable.  This is why the tonearm cable discussions here have my attention.  I would have to say that power cords took on third priority.  Swapping in a few highly-reviewed speaker cables resulted in minimal difference vs. other links.  Funds were much better spent elsewhere and thus my speaker cables were constant for many years.  I have since experienced how significant a speaker cable "update" can be, but I needed to do a lot of work first to get there.  Perhaps with my system as it is now, evaluating newer cable models at various links would more clearly show which link might benefit from some new attention.  But for now, things are pretty good here.

Early on, I swapped my "reference" IC with the one under evaluation from from phono-to-line and line-to-amp.  At the start of these early evaluations, I had cheap Belden and Canare IC's.  No matter what cables I had in the system, putting the Belden or Canare in the line to amp link instantly destroyed the magic I had worked so hard to achieve; the result was horrible!  It was not a tonality change but rather a destruction of the decays and harmonic overtones.  If I was a solid state preamp owner, I suspect such differences would not have been as significant .

There were many times when the evaluated cable was neck and neck or even preferred over my current reference IC, at the line to amp link.  When I then replaced the Canare at the phono to line with either of the other two IC's, this change indeed brought on refinements.  The differences here were not to the same degree as the line to amp link.  Any such benefits were irrelevant if the Canare was used into the amp.   So much for the nonsense claim that the "best" cable must always be put at the top of the chain. I had similar results later on with several highly touted ICs from line to amp that destroyed my system's magic.

Moving onto the tonearm cable, differences here were more in line with the benefits of a refined cable to the amp.  And it was the Stealth Hyperphono here that stole the show vs. the three other tonearm cables I owned at that time.  I was unprepared for this difference.  I would like to try a "modern" tonearm cable but the ones I am interested in are insanely expensive.  And others are from cable manufacturers that I could not wait to get out of my system.

Hopefully either in this thread or another, the findings of a "run away discovery" tonearm cable implementation by any of the contributors here will be shared.

John

Dear @jafox  : What a post !, a learning one. Thank's for sharing your valuable experiences down there.

Btw, a wealthy audiophile that as you owns tube electronics and I think with" heavy " first hand experiences on IC phono cable posted that the AQ Leopard ( even that's the AQ top of the line. ) is the way to go down there.

Against the Sthealth is really inexpensive and in some ways its design is really interesting to read and maybe to make a test in your system:

https://www.audioquest.com/cables/analog-interconnects/tonearm-cables/leopard

R.

@jafox 

You raise some great points. I look at cables a little differently to most. I assume all cables degrade the sound, and therefore when I assess cables I am looking for the cable that does the least damage - least damage in terms of transparency, noise floor, coherency. I see too many people using cables as a bandaid to a system issue - check the forums "looking for a cable with good bass..." or other criteria.

With regard to phono cables it gets a little bit interesting because there is no one size fits all. Electrically the tonearm cable is part of a tuned system that includes the cartridge and the receiving device - be it phono stage, moving coil set up ( transformer or other active mc step up ). Therefore unless everyone has the same cartridge/phono, experiences and opinions will vary, as they do.

I note that neither Audioquet or Stealth provide any electrical specifications for their phono cables - no capacitance figures, no data on phase shifts at varying frequencies etc etc.

So for most folk phono cables are a lottery - suck it and see. And in many situations I have seen folk come to grief because they have a cable bandaid, they upgrade their system and the cable bandaid doesn't work with the new gear.

For my own system I use 2 phono cables depending on cartridge.

For MM's I use a custom Audioplan phono cable - silver, twisted pair, shielded  ultra low capacitance. This was a manufacturers sample never released to public - too expensive.

For MC's ( which is what I primarily listen to ) I use either MIT Oracle phono or some custom cables I have built myself using MIT Varilay wire as a builtin block from the 80's. They are very capacitive which is why they don't work with MM's.

I have a lot in the bin - Ikeda, Audio Tekne, Audioquest and many others in the parts bin. Most of these do too much damage. I have not heard the Hyperphono, the Audioquest Leopard is average, not particularly transparent, low level detail goes awol in my experience.

Finally we have to remember that listening preferences vary considerably from person to person, some folk want a nice smooth sound, some want zero noise, some want "fast zippy sound" - when I had an audio shop I heard it all.

My advice for any cable purchaser is audition in your own system, listen for musical coherence, low noise floor and transparency - do not focus on a specific attribute - and do not believe any reviews, use them as guides only.

Raul, 

Concerning Reed tonearms, a few years ago an audio dealer had a TT for sale that I wanted but it was sold just before I contacted that dealer.  I then bought the Triangle Art TT.  A year later, that same dealer had some Reed arms for sale.  I had read positive press on these arms.  Sadly once again, I hesitated and was too late to purchase one of those.

Earlier this month, this same dealer had one remaining arm in stock for sale that he will no longer carry.  This arm intrigued me enough for me to talk with him.  And ultimately I purchased this arm.  He offered to machine the mount ring for the arm tower and provide a spacer between the mount and arm to better handle any resonances.  These were offered to me at no charge; now that's great customer service!  Once I get this arm set up and live with it for some time, I will look to contact him again for advice on another arm ... perhaps a model that he now currently sells or that he has experience with, or some others on my mind.

As for Audioquest, after I read the rave reviews of their top IC at the time, I got one and tried it in my system.  It was one of the most dimensionally flat cables I had experienced.  No matter how tonally coherent, detailed, incredible degree of clarity,  etc., that a cable might have, if it truncates piano notes instantly, the cable is immediately dismissed.  Needless to say, I don't have a lot of excitement to try another Audioquest cable unless someone here can suggest a model.  However, I have an old Audioquest 7000 cartridge, re-tipped by the Andy at the Needle Clinic.  This cartridge is outstanding and just might be one of two that I end up running in a 2-tonearm system.

John

@frogman the description offered from a few added comments from myself, I think we are very close in our understanding of what a correct cable choice for our own systems can create.

 @dover 'I look at cables a little differently to most. I assume all cables degrade the sound, ( I formed this viewpoint when swapping out OFC cables to be replaced with OCC ) and therefore when I assess cables I am looking for the cable that does the least damage ( create the perception of being able to produce the the most honest rendition from my assessment ) - least damage in terms of transparency (to sense that there is an added level in the presentation, of being able to improve how the defining of the produced micro details, note envelope, attack, dynamics and imaging are being perceived, when these sonic traits are being realized the Soundstage takes on a whole new meaning ) the  noise floor ( to realize the former valued sonic traits the noise floor will be noticeably quieter and much less of a detractor, as once the noise is known, the coloration it will produce, can draw the attention and can become quite undesirable ), coherency. (when the Frequency Range sound correctly balanced between each other ands there is no on area taking a dominance, when this is being sensed as being a Honest Rendition, the performance during the replay can for some, including myself, become very satisfying )

I have always been happy with my system for over 15 Years, when it was still an analogue only system, and as it progressed to take on new source options in the digital format.

The devices chosen to assemble the system are pretty much the same, the choices made for the interfaces has been an evolving experience and has undergone changes as described.

The PC Triple C and D.U.C.C Wire in Cables has transformed the system to rendition my earlier sonic trait descriptions to a level I did not see developing.

I was quite alone in the quest for these cables, and now I have loaned a few types out the number of individuals in the UK are beginning to grow in numbers for the acquiring of them, some of these purchases are being made as a direct result of the demonstration offered, and others are made as a result of word of mouth recommendations and not from my mouth.   

    '