Long cables from turntable or phono stage

OK- I am going to be the lone voice here. Most LOMC cartridge don't make much voltage but they do make a surprising amount of current, otherwise you could not load them at 50 or 100 ohms and get away with it.

So I am asking here that you all think about that simple fact.

What this means is that the cartridge and cable is a fairly low impedance system, and the length of the cable is thus not nearly as problematic as suggested above. What the real problem is: the cartridge has an inductance and the cable has a capacitance. This will not cause problems at audio frequencies, but will cause issues at Radio Frequencies.

This is true even if the cable is only one meter BTW.

So what you **may** have to do is adjust the loading resistor, should it be the case that your preamp cares about RF coming into its phono input (some preamps, particularly solid state preamps, don't like RF at their inputs and this can really affect the sound).

Bottom line: you can very successfully run a 4 meter interconnect. You may experience some artifact from the cable, but if you run it balanced you can eliminate that.

Now if you are using a high output moving magnet, then its a different deal and you will find that because its impedance is higher, it is also more sensitive to the cable.

Ralph(Atamsphere) What is meant by

if you run it balanced

aren't all phono cables RCA unbalanced?

Ralph,

The OP is not using a LOMC. His ADC XLM is a MM cartridge, so the last sentence of your post is the only one applicable to *him*.

That said, those of us who use LOMCs appreciate your knowledgeable input, as always.

Nick, No. The vast majority of cartridges are inherently balanced output. So it is possible to use a true balanced connection from the cartridge to the phono input. It especially makes sense to do so if you have a truly balanced phono stage. Such products are still rather rare, but they do exist. Atma-sphere preamplifiers, MP1 and MP3, are examples of such. The connection from the cartridge requires three discrete wires (positive and negative "hot" wires derived from what are labeled "hot and ground" on the cartridge body, and a separate ground) into an XLR connector, rather than the two normally associated with RCA connection ("hot" and "ground", as per the color-coded labels on the cartridge body).

Thanks Doug, missed that in my fanaticism. In that case the capacitance of the cable is playing a big role in the loading of the cartridge. If it were me I would measure the capacitance of the cable, subtract the capacitive value of my one-meter cable, and then pick a capacitor of the resulting difference value. I would then plug it into the loading strip of the preamp, and see how it interacts with the cartridge. If a roll-off is detected, a lower capacitance cable should be found of a preamp could be placed by the 'table itself. But if the cartridge is not sounding rolled off then its good to go.