I have an old Rek-O-Kut tonearm that I want to use. The headshell and tonearm wire colors aren't the current standard, i.e.,
White (left)
Blue (left ground)
Red (right)
Green (right ground)
Instead, the colors are White, Blue, Brown, Black
The actual colors don't matter since I will be soldering the tonearm wires and RCA cables to a terminal strip, matching the RCA male connectors to the cartridge pins.
My question is, since the tonearm wires have two twisted pairs as seen in the photo, do I connect both "hot" leads to one twisted pair and both "neutral" leads to the other twisted pair?
Or should I use one twisted pair for the "hot" and "neutral" of the Left channel and the other twisted pair for the Right channel?
White (left)
Blue (left ground)
Red (right)
Green (right ground)
Instead, the colors are White, Blue, Brown, Black
The actual colors don't matter since I will be soldering the tonearm wires and RCA cables to a terminal strip, matching the RCA male connectors to the cartridge pins.
My question is, since the tonearm wires have two twisted pairs as seen in the photo, do I connect both "hot" leads to one twisted pair and both "neutral" leads to the other twisted pair?
Or should I use one twisted pair for the "hot" and "neutral" of the Left channel and the other twisted pair for the Right channel?
One twisted pair should have R hot and R cold.
The other twisted pair should have L hot and L cold.
The other twisted pair should have L hot and L cold.
This is to minimize both the loop area for the wiring in each channel, and reduce external noise pickup.
But the two twisted pairs should be separate from one another, to minimize stiffness, and maintain channel separation.
But the two twisted pairs should be separate from one another, to minimize stiffness, and maintain channel separation.
I wasn't guessing.
I found an original manual for the tonearm but the instructions were ambiguous and the color coding is not standard, so I started this thread to ask which wire pairs should be twisted,
hot + hot
neutral + neutral
or
hot + neutral
hot + neutral
I found an original manual for the tonearm but the instructions were ambiguous and the color coding is not standard, so I started this thread to ask which wire pairs should be twisted,
hot + hot
neutral + neutral
or
hot + neutral
hot + neutral
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Yes, hot + neutral in twisted pairs, keeps common mode noise to a minimum. Twisting all 4 in a star quad arrangement is also very common.
Wouldn't this reduce stereo separation?
I would've thought what Ray said:
... was the correct way of doing things?
Maybe on paper. The voltages are so small I doubt it's noticeable, but I've never done a side by side comparison. By far, cartridge choice will have a greater impact on separation than the wiring.
Humans can't detect separation that's as bad as -30dB (and most cartridges can't do better), so I think you are good.