Long cables from turntable or phono stage

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.

Nick sr phono cables can be balanced in the form of 5-din connector. If you separate ground for each channel you'll get fully balanced phono inputs.
Conventionally there are no balanced(to my knowledge) phono cables, but seen phonostages with balanced XLR and 5-din inputs.