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Special "phono cables" from turntable to phonostag

Lately, I have been caught in the "cable syndrome" that seems to catch up with everyone eventually.. .. I used to silently laugh at myself when reading about all of the people speaking of the differences in interconnect cables. Not that I didn't believe that there could be a difference in sound. It's just that the cost of the cables seemed out of proportion to the alleged improvements.

Well, all of that changed when I made the mistake of visiting my local dealer, who loaned me a pair of high quality Transparent interconnects to try at home in place of my Audioquest Ruby cables, which I was sure that were as good as I would probably ever need.

Anyway, long story short,(too late!) after playing with cables for about 2 weeks in my system, I noticed that I was neglecting the Phono cable from tt to Phonostage. My dealer tells me to not use a network cable(i.e. Transparent) in this application. I wonder how much I am missing with the Ruby cable here?

Any light will help!

I fear that I have entered "Audio Nervosa" as one writer put it recently. But my system has never sounded so good!
If only I could make the last few adjustments....and maybe a new phono cartridge...and that pre-amp upgrade that has been bugging me.....

Brad
bfuehrer
s23chang
620 posts
 
The best phono cable for the money is the XLO signature phono 3.1 and 3.2. used price around $350 to $450 for the 1 meter length.
basement
245 posts
 
This is an interesting coincidence, because I had a ruby that I was stuck with when a dishonest dealer would not take it back from an audition (a rare occurance). I tried it for a phono cable and found it to work extremely well, evan outperforming a lot of more expensive cables made for phono (another rare occurance, as I didn't really think it was that great in other applications, and it is not a "phono" cable). Then, when I upgraded my phono stage, I then used it for the phono to preamp ic, and it worked so well it lasted longer than any other cable in my system, including cartridge, arm, phono stage, and ic's for the entire system.
Anyway, to make a long story short (too late), I would try the ruby for your phono application. It may outperform many more expensive cables in your system as it did for me, as well as give you something to campare to. Also, what I did was upgrade My phono stage and put it right next to my turntable, where I have my tonearm wire directly plugged into it, eliminating the phono cable altogether. There are also a lot of tonearms that come with the tonearm wire long enough to reach the pre, eliminating the connections of adding a cable. If you think about it this way, perhaps the money you spend on a phono cable could be placed elsewhere to bring you to a higher level.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
I agree that Transparent networks cables are not the best for phono applications. I had a pair of Transparent Reference MC Phono cables, and found they were easily bested by a pair of Discovery Essence for less money. I also tried the XLO Signature 3.1, but preferred the Discovery interconnect. Maybe it's because my VPI JMW 10.5 arm is internally wired with Discovery cable, I don't know, but it works for me.

Cheers,

John
colitas
150 posts
 
So what type of IC(cable) do you use for the connection from phono preamp to receiver(in my case)? Or did I just miss the whole point of the conversation?;)-~ Does it matter?
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