[lcrim]

I stopped over to Kevin's (KAB) last night after work and he changed out my stock tonearm (1200 MKII) for a rewired arm w/ the Cardas wire (33ga. copper) which is then connected to a custom block (also has a ground wire) then to a length of Cardas cable (33ga. copper litz) that has a shield and then to the RCA connector block.  I had a meter pair of Blue Jeans Cables new LC-1 IC's to use to my Eastern Electric phono section.
Preliminary listening was startling.  The improvement is of an order greater than a new component.  The thing I was struck by first, is that the harmonics of instruments are more fully reproduced.  I began w/ a personal favorite Keith Jarrett's "Köln Concert."  Just Keith and his improvisational skills and the full tonal register of a solo piano-I have never heard it sound so dramatic.  I then picked up Ricky Lee Jones EP "Girl at her volcano" starting off w/ side 2 "Under the Boardwalk",  even though it is winter and the holidays I was transported.
I played some Stan Getz w/ Chick Corea, Ron Carter and Grady Tate and the music which has such a strong rhythmic quality was fuller and more present than my memory of it.  It got to be midnight too quickly.
Anyway, I don't know what the cost of this mod will be but I can heartily recommend it. Some of my less well cared for vinyl revealed its noisy surface but not too bad, more detailed is more detailed.  On really good vinyl you hear more of the music, the overtones and the ambient noise of the venue and that helps take you away and that is why I listen.

[BikeWNC]

I wonder what the difference is between what you heard vs my tt with only the RCA cable replaced with ZU Xaus.  I experienced a similar change when I soldered in the Zu cable.

Andy

[Psychicanimal]

My plan is to have Kevin solder two Cardas Litz bundles per pin, so that L & R channels can be run separately in a star quad configuration, lightly twisted.  That should improve clarity even more.  Instead of one shielded run from the custom terminal to RCAs, I would use two, keeping the star quad configuration intact.  Another option would be to attach DIN terminals to the tonearm base adapter instead of using Kevin's custom five connector bar.  I'm still in the brainstorming phase...

I have a busted Sumiko PIB (phono interface box), wonder if it could be bolted to the 1200.

[lcrim]

Francisco:
Kevin will offer a variant of the rewire ending in a DIN termination.  I saw the plate last night and it is a very nice fit.  He mentioned that he had spoken with you, perhaps it came up.
There were no problems in feeding 4 X 33 ga. litz wires through the arm and the balance was not upset.  Apparently some have used the shielded Cardas wire through the arm and that is probably a bit much for the space and the mass of the arm IMO.  That cable is not light by any means.

[Psychicanimal]

Yes, I did talk to Kevin and I also talked to Robet Ridgestreet and said I would hook them up, but it's been hectic.  Both Robert and Kevin are very busy these days.  I've been on narcotics last week because of a nasty foot surgery...still hurts and no refills!!!

What I propose is not running the shielded Cardas inside the tube.  Instead, running 8 Litz wires inside (two per pin) and twisting each channel separate in a star quad configuration.  That's just going to drop the noise floor and expand the cabling bandwith.  Has anyone heard how good that 30 cents/ft 16/4 Carol in line speaker wire sounds?  Imagine doing that to Cardas Litz!

As to how I would like connections, I don't know yet and am not discarding any ideas.  I've started to notice top notch TT owners (megabuck) tend to dislike DIN rattail phono cables because of interchannel issues and prefer individual L/R cables with RCA to RCA connections. This is in spite of the lower impedance of a DIN plug.  Now, I don't know how ZuCable has managed that with the Xaus.

Once again, I'm just brainstorming & since I can't move around too much am doing a lot of archive searching regarding this subject.

[Listens2tubes]

It may be easier to use the Cardas shielded cable minus it's rubber jacket, braided shield and teflon wrap in the armtube. Each pair of wires is twisted then the pairs are twisted. It may be to stiff having 4 twisted pairs at the pivot bend.