Phono interconnect under $500 used

Zd542, if you hear differences in balanced cables, then the equipment you are using is not supporting the balanced standard. The standard was created to eliminate cable colorations and it does that very well. If you want proof of that take any LP from the late 1950s as an example.

They were often recorded with 10s if not 100s of feet between the microphone and the input to the tape machine, yet decades later many of those LPs are still revered for their sound, even though there were no exotic high end interconnects around at the time.

Many or most of high end audio manufacturers either are unaware of or choose to not support the balanced standard. As a result you hear differences in the cable.

A LOMC cartridge is one of the best places to apply the standard though and its easy. The arm is likely already wired properly (unless it is a straight tracker- some of those lack the proper ground wire)- you can even set up a cheap old BSR from the 1970s to do balanced.

If you think about it, its not uncommon for a LOMC cartridge to drive a 100 ohm loading resistor. So if it is balanced and also driving a similar load you have a low impedance balanced system. In such a situation the cable will cease to color the sound. All SUTs can operate with a balanced input, so this should not be hard to do. Something to think about.

Zd, if you haven't already seen it there is some good further discussion of Ralph's point about the balanced line standard in this thread.

Caution: Long sentence below; not sure how to put it more simply :-)

Ralph, in the case of a phono cable though, as opposed to a line-level interconnect, even in a low impedance balanced configuration isn't it still possible that sensitivity to cable differences might result from differences in cable capacitance altering the frequency and magnitude of the ultrasonic resonant peak resulting from the interaction of that capacitance with the inductance of the cartridge, with that change causing the phono stage to respond differently to ultrasonic energy that may be present?

Best regards,
-- Al

I am happy with the Silver Dragon phono cable from moonaudio.com in Raleigh. It is custom made to your length and connections from ~$200 to 350.

Hi Al. That's a long sentence :) the answer is 'yes', or 'sort of'.

A better way of looking at it is that once the proper loading is achieved (which is a combination of capacitance and resistive elements, usually the cable being the capacitance), then it will be found that the cable is really not contributing to the sound.

With your typical LOMC, the capcitance will play a very small role as the impedance of the cartridge might only be 10 ohms with perhaps 100 ohms at the other end. It would take quite a large amount of capacitance to mess with that at audio frequencies.

You can see where I am going with this- its entirely a different matter at RF frequencies. It is the RF aspects that usually describe how effective the loading of a LOMC cartridge actually is.

So- the cable might have some effect (although not artifact) at RF frequencies, but certainly not at audio frequencies.

That is the nature of 'sort of' :)

Atmasphere says

The phono cartridge is a balanced source. Zd542, if you hear differences in balanced cables, then the equipment you are using is not supporting the balanced standard.

Using your logic, since most cartridges sound different even when using balanced cables then the phono cartridge is not supporting the balanced standard.