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Long cables from turntable or phono stage

Hi I have a question that involves a compromise. I have a turntable that (for various reasons) has to be positioned a little distance from the hifi, about 4m of cable. Would it be better to connect the turntable (transcriptors hydraulic reference, ADC XLM ii) to the phono stage (moon 110LP) then run long singled ended cable to the amplifier or should I run long extension cable from the turntable to the phono stage and use a short interconnect from the phono stage to the amplifier? For visual reasons the latter is better. Any thoughts?
(Amp is plinius tautoro/SA103, speakers confidence C1 Dynaudio, tautoro is the line stage only version).
ninox
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,149 posts
 
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.
czarivey
5,946 posts
 
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.
nick_sr
263 posts
 
The bottom line seems to be that without a balanced phono stage, you can't have a balanced connection even if cartridge output is inherently balanced.

Or could you use a Jensen transformer (Balanced line in to SE output)as was suggested to me in another thread?

Also I assume that by using a SUT, it would play the same role as the Jensen, while stepping up the voltage?
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,149 posts
 
Any SUT is capable of receiving the signal in balanced domain, so you can run balanced from the cartridge if you have an SUT, regardless of the phono section. There are indeed balanced phono cables available too.

You know that funny ground wire on the single-ended (RCA) cables that no other single-ended source seems to need? That is there because you are taking a balanced system and running it single ended. A balanced system has a ground system that is independent of the signal, and has to be grounded separately. If the cable were balanced, it would be pin 1 of the XLR.
nick_sr
263 posts
 
Ralph, when i rewired my tone arm recently, I used a Mogami 2549 cable, 2 conductor with a shield. The left and right +/- were connected to their respective blue and clear conductors and the shields from both the left and right wire were connected to the ground lead at the TT and left floating at the preamp end. The separate ground lead is then connected to the chassis of the preamp.

Is my understanding correct from the previous posts above, even though this configuration mimics a balanced connection it cannot be one given that the preamp input is single ended (RCA)?
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