Clearaudio universal tonearm re-wire.

It is surprising that a problem that has become so public has not been corrected by Clearaudio.

@mijostyn I love my Clearaudio decks but there are definitely "warts" not brought to light by the mainstream audio press. I’ve have a list of "WTF" moments with them over the years, especially certain design decisions. A good example was their full magnetic bearing arms - yeah let’s add ANOTHER high compliance suspension to complexly interact with the cartridge suspension lol. Another example, my dealer had an early twister clamp where the metal twist knob didn’t have a hard stop on loosening - it was very easy to over rotate, then it pops right off and you have a few ounces chunk of metal like a wrecking ball right over your record and cartridge. Anyways, the complaints about Universal tonearm lead wires are legit - it’s borderline sadistic. I’ve almost never seen an "official" reviewer write about design issues like this, but it’s prevalent in the industry. If I used it half as much as my other arms, I'd have broke a lead by now. I don't use it much because I suspect I don't like the sonic contributions of carbon fiber in my analog - but its build quality and materials quality, other than lead wires choice, is extremely high. 

@mulveling Thanks for weighing in on this. I agree with you. OMG: I had a Clarify and then a Magnify. Those magnetic bearings arms are just evil. Add a pair of subs to the mix and listen to the feedback go completely crazy. Musical Surroundings doesn't even support those arms anymore. You can see them on the Clearaudio website, but they are absent from the Musical Surroundings site.

@mijostyn I personally don't need any options at the moment. I have two Universal arms and have managed to keep the head shell wires intact so far. However, I have a temporary Dynavector on my 12" arm while my Lyra is out for cleaning/repair. I will have some stress swapping them out again on its return. I suppose if I do break a lead I will just go the official route for repair.

In my experience anything to do with the Tonearm Signal Path has a obvious fragility.

I have a Silver Litz Wire used as a continuous wire on a Tonearm. I have lost a channel on this on a few occasions.

I passed the Tonearm on to an individual who lives and breaths working with micro volts, a Tonearm is one of their destress jobs, Horses for Courses, is how I was taught.     

@dwette 

Then I would highly recommend rewiring the arm and no I do not have any idea how tough that is with a Universal. My own feeling about those types of things is if they put it together I can take it apart and yes that attitude has gotten me into trouble once in a while, but it does make life more interesting. I believe Cardas sells tonearm leads. The trick is the solder all the wires together with a pull wire. You pull the wire through the arm then solder the new wires to it and pull it back through. I do not know what is at the bottom of the arm, maybe a DIN connector? Whatever, you solder the new wire where the old ones were attached.

@mijostyn There is no compelling reason to rewire my tonearms while they are presently intact. That’s just a waste of money and time. They are fine for now. If the leads break I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, in which case I’ll probably just have my dealer take care of getting it to Clearaudio for official rewire.

The good news for me is I have two Universal arms, one with a stereo cartridge and one with a mono. If I am without one of the arms for a while then I can do without using my mono cartridge while I wait for return of a repaired arm, if and when that happens.