I know my post will attract incoming from the 'true believers' who will accuse those with open minds of being what they are themselves. Imagine religious/political fanatics looking in a mirror and ranting at themselves.
I use a Kenwood KD990 which comes with an excellent gimbal arm and not only from the 1980s but even today it is wired with solid silver tonearm wire which flies in the face of 'accepted wisdom' aka Litz wiring.
Being unhappy with commercial i/connects I spent 4 years experimenting with different materials, designs and conductor types culminating in 2011 with a definitive design leaving only one conductor material to try one day in the future - solid core bare copper. In my i/connects I use 4 x for signal and return, trying to save on cost using a different cheaper material for return doesn't work. It means a lot more time and construction much harder and I wouldn't do this unless there wasn't such an improvement in the resulting sound. For tonearm wiring this isn't nec. just one conductor for each cartridge pin. Interestingly the Kenwood arm has 2 earth wires?
My only criticism of Kenwood's tonearm wire is that it is like most signal wire tightly wrapped in a dieletric, the actual material of the dielectric is irrelevant. The 'accepted wisdom' for this is to stop silver sulphides or copper oxidation from forming when either metal is exposed to oxygen.
Without a doubt this is true but only when these metals are exposed 'free to air' aka a constant exposure to a constant supply of oxygen. I have deconstructed i/connects I made 10 years ago and found that the silver wire had sulphides only on the exposed wire from solder to the first centimetre inside the dielectric.
Here's the interesting part - after reading the seminal work on electric conduction by Oliver Heaviside toward the end of the 19th century which is unchallenged by the scientific community world wide, I had to experiment using his findings that - electricity travels not only through a conductor but around it. I decided to try over sized dielectric, first using PTFE/Teflon and then from the same family of fluorocarbons, FEP, no question when FEP is used the difference in clarity is remarkable, I use the word - transparent.
So, the sulphides were formed only on the conductors first cm inside the oversized FEP tubing. Once the i/connects were finished the atmosphere inside the effectively sealed i/cs were no longer 'free to air' ergo no more oxygen could enter, no more sulphides could form.
Further to confirm this I had bought plenty of 24/26 AWG high purity silver wire in 2010 which came in plastic snap top bags which had remained unopened since that time - there was very little discolouration of the wire and that only near the top of the bags. I deliberately cut some of the wires and left them exposed to the air/oxygen, guess what, sulphides quickly formed turning nearly black over 5 weeks.
I have 2 Kenwood t/ts and I'm still pondering whether I should 'remove' the plug at the headshell end and the 'fitting' at the arm outlet which isn't big enough to take my design of tonearm wiring. If I do this it would mean not having the excellent end-of-side arm lift and motor stop.
The Kenwood tonearm is a delight to set up and use, what is my alternative - to buy a Kevin Edwards A600 captive unipivot with a choice of 9"/10" or 12" arm with fixed head shell allowing me an easy one piece tonearm wiring from cartridge to phono stage.
I havn't used shielded i/connect or tonearm wiring from the second year of experimentation, it seriously distorts the signal. All power cables should be shielded even low power stuff like CDPs, DACs. etc. I use CT100/CT125 sat cable. with it's honeycombed construction for high power gear it is easy to add to the 1 mm or 1.25 mm centre solid core wire using the honeycombed construction. This sat. cable has a 100% copper foil and over this copper mesh shielding. I have never found any interference with my unshielded i/connects or tonearm wiring.
I will use - inside diameter 0.80 mm / o/d 1 mm ultra thin wall FEP tubing, very flexible but must be handled with care and high purity silver 30 or better AWG solid core wire from cartridge tags to phono stage. As stated by many any loss of flexibility will affect arm function.
As others have said - this has to be the first and best placed intervention for maximum improvement in analogue signal conduction - let's see - all theory should be from practice. Theory without practice has only one difference from a fart - it doesn't smell but equally has no value.
I use a Kenwood KD990 which comes with an excellent gimbal arm and not only from the 1980s but even today it is wired with solid silver tonearm wire which flies in the face of 'accepted wisdom' aka Litz wiring.
Being unhappy with commercial i/connects I spent 4 years experimenting with different materials, designs and conductor types culminating in 2011 with a definitive design leaving only one conductor material to try one day in the future - solid core bare copper. In my i/connects I use 4 x for signal and return, trying to save on cost using a different cheaper material for return doesn't work. It means a lot more time and construction much harder and I wouldn't do this unless there wasn't such an improvement in the resulting sound. For tonearm wiring this isn't nec. just one conductor for each cartridge pin. Interestingly the Kenwood arm has 2 earth wires?
My only criticism of Kenwood's tonearm wire is that it is like most signal wire tightly wrapped in a dieletric, the actual material of the dielectric is irrelevant. The 'accepted wisdom' for this is to stop silver sulphides or copper oxidation from forming when either metal is exposed to oxygen.
Without a doubt this is true but only when these metals are exposed 'free to air' aka a constant exposure to a constant supply of oxygen. I have deconstructed i/connects I made 10 years ago and found that the silver wire had sulphides only on the exposed wire from solder to the first centimetre inside the dielectric.
Here's the interesting part - after reading the seminal work on electric conduction by Oliver Heaviside toward the end of the 19th century which is unchallenged by the scientific community world wide, I had to experiment using his findings that - electricity travels not only through a conductor but around it. I decided to try over sized dielectric, first using PTFE/Teflon and then from the same family of fluorocarbons, FEP, no question when FEP is used the difference in clarity is remarkable, I use the word - transparent.
So, the sulphides were formed only on the conductors first cm inside the oversized FEP tubing. Once the i/connects were finished the atmosphere inside the effectively sealed i/cs were no longer 'free to air' ergo no more oxygen could enter, no more sulphides could form.
Further to confirm this I had bought plenty of 24/26 AWG high purity silver wire in 2010 which came in plastic snap top bags which had remained unopened since that time - there was very little discolouration of the wire and that only near the top of the bags. I deliberately cut some of the wires and left them exposed to the air/oxygen, guess what, sulphides quickly formed turning nearly black over 5 weeks.
I have 2 Kenwood t/ts and I'm still pondering whether I should 'remove' the plug at the headshell end and the 'fitting' at the arm outlet which isn't big enough to take my design of tonearm wiring. If I do this it would mean not having the excellent end-of-side arm lift and motor stop.
The Kenwood tonearm is a delight to set up and use, what is my alternative - to buy a Kevin Edwards A600 captive unipivot with a choice of 9"/10" or 12" arm with fixed head shell allowing me an easy one piece tonearm wiring from cartridge to phono stage.
I havn't used shielded i/connect or tonearm wiring from the second year of experimentation, it seriously distorts the signal. All power cables should be shielded even low power stuff like CDPs, DACs. etc. I use CT100/CT125 sat cable. with it's honeycombed construction for high power gear it is easy to add to the 1 mm or 1.25 mm centre solid core wire using the honeycombed construction. This sat. cable has a 100% copper foil and over this copper mesh shielding. I have never found any interference with my unshielded i/connects or tonearm wiring.
I will use - inside diameter 0.80 mm / o/d 1 mm ultra thin wall FEP tubing, very flexible but must be handled with care and high purity silver 30 or better AWG solid core wire from cartridge tags to phono stage. As stated by many any loss of flexibility will affect arm function.
As others have said - this has to be the first and best placed intervention for maximum improvement in analogue signal conduction - let's see - all theory should be from practice. Theory without practice has only one difference from a fart - it doesn't smell but equally has no value.
Forgot to mention I now use a knocked down/diluted 4-1 solution of Pro-Gold with isopropyl alcohol to brush the solder to 1 cm section of the signal and return wiring this will protect the bare wire from forming either Sulphide or oxidation. The alcohol evaporates leaving a very thin film of protection, I then use heatshrink tubing to effectively seal the construction. I never use the stupid screws provided with connectors. When fitting the connectors I first loosely fit the first connector allowing it turn to suit the angle of fit, this means the cable is never experiencing any twisting pressure so that the conductors are not experiencing any unwanted torque, ergo no pressure on soldered joints.
All positive criticism is welcome.
All positive criticism is welcome.
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