What makes a better phono cable ?


Silver or copper? My understanding would be silver but finding a low capacitance silver cable has been a challenge.Currently using a Synergistic Tricon Analog.Nice cable but seems to be my weakest link.Any experienced input would be greatly appreciated.
128x128franklapdog
I'd recommend taking advantage of the Cable Company's lending library of cables if you don't have the ability to audition in your system locally. Cables are so system dependent.

Though I should also point out that Audience takes the interesting approach of different cables for different types of carts. Low impedance LOMC, higher impedance LOMC and MM.
03-13-15: Roscoeiii
I'd recommend taking advantage of the Cable Company's lending library of cables if you don't have the ability to audition in your system locally. Cables are so system dependent.
+1. Excellent suggestion by Roscoe. Also, Frank, it may be helpful for us to know what cartridge and what phono stage you are using, what load value you are applying at the input to the phono stage, and approximately what length the cable would be.

Regards,
-- Al
Already spoke with R.S.about this.Just trying to get it narrowed down a bit.Cart is Atlas,Ref2se 47 load and 1.2
Instead of asking which conductors is the most revealing, why don't you ask which cables are the most revealing?

For most revealing, my recommendation would be the Stealth Audio Hyperphono cable. YMMV.
Really nice equipment you've got there, Frank! Given its quality and price range, and after reading through the writeup John provided on the Stealth Hyperphono cable, although that cable is certainly not inexpensive I think his recommendation is well worth considering and auditioning, perhaps via The Cable Company.

Your cartridge has an inductance of 11 uH, which is helpfully and unusually low for a cartridge having a rated output as high as 0.56 mv. Although the capacitance of the Hyperphono cable isn't specified, I see no reason to doubt the statement in its description that "there are two identical solid core signal wires inside each signal cable, symmetrically woven in a matrix geometry which offers high interference and noise rejection without the capacitance increase typical for simple twisted pairs." I suspect that the combination of its capacitance (for a 1.2 meter length), the 100 pf input capacitance of your phono stage, and the 11 uH inductance of the cartridge will put the resulting resonant frequency in approximately the 3 to 4 MHz (million Hertz) area, which seems very comfortably high, considering also the ca. 300 kHz bandwidth of your phono stage.

I'll say also, FWIW, that I see nothing in the writeup that from a technical standpoint raises my BS meter significantly above zero. I say that as someone whose meter is not uncommonly pegged at max, or close to it, by a lot of cable literature.

Good luck! Regards,
-- Al