[Wayner]

I have recently removed my interconnects from my Rega RB300 arm as it had developed a break in the left channel. I now sport 2 very nice RCA jacks, with about 2 inches of remaining wire before it enters the tonearm.

Now the new question. Which cable makes the least noise? The gain on a MM is about 40db and on an MC is 60, so it is very important to have a quiet background for great vinyl playback.

My testing was rather simple. I simply tried various cables and turned the gain up until I heard objectionable noise, and also keeping an eye on the volume control position.

The 6 candidates that I had on hand were 1) cheap cables you get with a CD  player (1M), 2) Monoprice (1M), 3) Monster Cable Interlink 100 (1M), Monster Cable Interlink 400 (2M), Bluejeans cable LC-1 (1.5M) and last magnet wire type cables, twisted (1M).

The big loser in the group was the magnet wire type interconnects. They, as I suspected, were gigantic antenna and didn't even get to 1/4 volume and the buzz was aweful. Moving the wires didn't really make a difference tho some places may have buzzed even more.

In second to last place was the cheap cables, but I was suprised they were pretty quite until about 12 o'clock. 3rd place went to both the Monster Cable sets. They made it to about 1 o'clock. Not bad and that would be at a crazy listening level, but that is not the test here.

The Monoprice and Bluejeans came in almost tied, tho I give the edge to the Bluejeans cables. I am not suprised at the results as it pretty much shows that the shielding of true RG-59/6 is very good and necessary for quiet vinyl background.

Wayner

[twitch54]

interesting Wayner for I'm using Sonny's (Tuan) magnet wire congifuration and absolutely love it, no interference what-so-ever ! He does incorporate a third 'shield lead' I do believe.

[TheChairGuy]

interesting Wayner for I'm using Sonny's (Tuan) magnet wire congifuration and absolutely love it, no interference what-so-ever ! He does incorporate a third 'shield lead' I do believe.

Ditto here...no noise noted with the TuanCable

John

[robinje]

Blue Jeans LC-1 is good stuff...   

[Sonny]

interesting Wayner for I'm using Sonny's (Tuan) magnet wire congifuration and absolutely love it, no interference what-so-ever ! He does incorporate a third 'shield lead' I do believe.

Ditto here...no noise noted with the TuanCable

John

Very true John and Dave, I do use in all of my system from tonearm to phono pre to preamp and down the rest of the chain...no noise here!  Weird thing is I've tried other name brand cables (un-named here) and I pick up hum and noise as well.

Wayner, I think that the magnet cables you tried were, in my opinion, applied differently (in terms of cable construction/design) as mine, therefore, they picked up hum...I tried Anti-cables once, and they hum like nuts on my system.

Tuan

[Sonny]

interesting Wayner for I'm using Sonny's (Tuan) magnet wire congifuration and absolutely love it, no interference what-so-ever ! He does incorporate a third 'shield lead' I do believe.

Yes Dave, there is a drain (shield) wire...that's why they pick up little to no noise! 
T

[orientalexpress]

i use tuan cable also,mine is 12 foot long and no noise either.



lapsan

[Sonny]

i use tuan cable also,mine is 12 foot long and no noise either.



lapsan

Right, and that's 12ft from phono pre to preamp...

[TheChairGuy]

Very true John and Dave, I do use in all of my system from tonearm to phono pre to preamp and down the rest of the chain...no noise here!  Weird thing is I've tried other name brand cables (un-named here) and I pick up hum and noise as well.

Wayner, I think that the magnet cables you tried were, in my opinion, applied differently (in terms of cable construction/design) as mine, therefore, they picked up hum...I tried Anti-cables once, and they hum like nuts on my system.

Tuan

For reference: I think Wayner is in a far-off suburb of Minneapolis whereas Tuan and I are within 5-7 miles as the crow flies from the main radio and TV broadcast tower (Sutro Tower) in San Francisco.

We are in different directions from Sutro Towner, but about the same distance.  He's also in a more densely packed area than I am...so he likely has a lot more local stations, ham and CB radio operators.  As well, he's in a condo/townhome community - where there is a plethora of wifi, cordless phone and other potential noise inducing devices in the immediate vicinity.

I did not specifically listen for, but have not heard any additional noise over the Monster Cable 1000i I have been using (which has layers of shielding as one of Monster's most expensive efforts)

So, the TuanCable is quite effective in rejecting RFI    Not all magnet wire recipes are the same.

John

[Wayner]

I've made my cables totally noise free now. I knew I was missing a component, but found it at ACE hardware. I'm not going to tell you what I did, so I don't piss on Tuan (Sonny)'s parade. I found enough of the material to make 1M of cable for the turntable.

I have discussed this theory with several people, and I think the benefits of solid core wire is significant. My theory is that in a cable with multi-strands, the signal becomes smeared. This happens because each stand has it's own slight irregularities regarding purity, grain structure and so on, so that a signal element ends up at it's own speed within each wire strand. Hense, the arrival time is scattered. Say we had 7 conductors for the center contact. We would end up with 7 arrival times for the signal. Tho their arrival times are micro-micro seconds close they are smeared. I'm also not sure that "magnet" wire is required, but it is cheap. I have some 24 awg?teflon coated solid wire that I used for the center conductor and used my drill to spiral wrap it with some 16awg magnet wire for the shield. I'll leave out the mystery part.

It is very interesting.

Wayner

Also, good job Tuan! Your on to something.

[Wayner]

I also think that what some of you have described as "bright" is actually what I would call "crisp". And that is because you've been listening along time to a smeared signal that is now time aligned.

Wayner