Does Everyone Use 2 Phono Cables with SUT

Well thanks OP for a very helpful thread. I’ve had an A23 Hommage T2 for several years now but I’ve always found it underwhelming. However I was using it with .5 meter A23 interconnects (and a Kuzma 4 point on the inputs). I had the intuition that the A23 ICs were over-damping the signal but I never got better results with other cables (all of them ‘interconnects’ too).

So I got re-inspired by this thread. As it happens there was a used pair of Kimber TAK cu phono cables available at a reputable shop near me. Apparently they have a capacitance of 47.1 pF in the 1m length - the ones I bought are 2 ft long. I swapped them in for the A23 ICs and sure enough I found a significant and positive improvement. Everything opened up, top to bottom, and now the T2 finally makes sense to me. I’m using it with a newly rebuilt EMT JSD 6 cart and will swap in a new Zu Audio/Denon 103 shortly. Very nice to get the value out of the T2 after all that time.

Hi Jollytinker,

You made my day. I’m glad this discussion was helpful.

I find the Auditorium SUT’s to be stunning when used as intended.

I’m still breaking in my 2 new phono cables and will report back shortly.

I have never really found the difference between the two.

Dinov, there really IS no difference except I guess in the minds of some or where a phono cable could be defined as a cable that terminates at one pair of ends by a usually female DIN plug or the like.

There is actually one substantial difference between the cable that feeds the input of a SUT and the one that comes from the output of a SUT.  The difference is the impedance level at which they operate which dictates the situational needs.

Lets assume a 10Ω cartridge and a 1:20 SUT.  The cable from the cartridge will be operating with a 10Ω source impedance which is so low that length and cable  capacitance is typically not much of an issue.  Granted the signal levels are also quite low so noise pickup can be a concern so this wire is always typically shielded. Since it is a low impedance line, the penalty of the shield is minimal.  On the other side of the SUT the cable sees 4000Ω and suddenly capacitance starts to take its toll.  Due to the higher impedance shielding is a must for quiet operation but the capacitance that comes along with the shielding becomes the "gotcha".  This is the main reason it is wise to keep this cable as short as possible.  This is particularly important when you get into the higher impedance cartridges through high ratio SUT's 

dave