Clearaudio universal tonearm re-wire.

I would respect clearaudio arm as-is without rewiring.

I have two Universal arms and those litz wires give me major stress anytime I have to swap a cartridge. I am super careful and have been lucky so far, but I'm interested in solutions if I ever have an issue. I assume repeated cartridge changes will eventually result in a tearful outcome.

@dwette ,

Absolutely not. You should be able to swap cartridges till the cows come home. If anything is going to break it will be a clip or the wire will break right at the solder joint. There should be a heat shrink strain relief on each clip for this reason. If there isn't I suggest you put them on in color code. If the solder joint breaks it is easy to reattach the clip. One mistake a lot of people make is not locking the tonearm down. Use a tie wrap if the arm does not have a lock. Also NEVER use your fingers to remove or replace the clips. Use a small needle nose pliers (4 inch) preferably spring loaded. 

@mijostyn All good advice that I follow anyway.

However, I know that my dealer does all those things too, and has broken wires. Once, Musical Surroundings sent me a warranty replacement Universal and when it arrived two of the head shell wires were broken in transit because they didn’t secure them by putting a little bag around the head shell. These wrires are very, very, very thin. They do break easily enough.

How long have you had a Universal and how often have you swapped cartridges on one?

@Mijostyn

That isn't reality with Clearaudio tonearm wiring. They use the finest strands of wire which are extremely fragile. It's only a matter of time before you will ever so slightly pull on it too hard it will break. Once you do that trying to remove the insulation on a fine wire like that to resolder it is almost impossible.