Any hardcore turntable/vinyl people here

[Pierre.Suave]

that know how easy or hard it is to upgrade the tonearm cable?

:shrug:

[hunter]

1. I'm not hardcore so it's pretty easy to do on my players.

I like to play my records on the same sort of equipment most people would have played their records on when the record was made. If I make a digital copy I don't even do anything to clean it up, unless maybe it's a bad pop on a record I don't have another copy of.

Most of my music collection came from thrift stores.

Still, I think it's not too difficult to replace the cables on most tone arms. Some jobs you may have to know how to use a fine soldering iron, and be handy with a jeweler's screwdriver, but that's something you can practice first before you hit the tone arm's cartridge socket or connectors.

I've misplaced my bookmarks for places I've bought replacement needles and rubber parts from, and I know they sold wiring too, but I'd look for sites advertising vintage stuff, and not audiophile vinyl-cult kind of stuff unless you really want to spend a lot more money than you have to. At some point wires are just wires and you can peel open an old computer mouse cable or something likle that if you can't find a proper replacement.

[Pierre.Suave]

6. But I am one of those audiophile-vinyl-cult people?

:P

[hunter]

9. I've always had this awesome ability to make myself unwelcome in any group.

My life is held together with hot glue, duct tape and pure dumb luck.

This is a very good wine, where did you get it?

I dunno, on the clearance rack at Safeway maybe. I liked the label and it was only five bucks.

[DS1]

2. Just buy a new bird, Flintstone!

[Pierre.Suave]

4. If only it were that easy...

[Just Visiting]

3. Depends on the type

Does the turntable have a captive turntable interconnect (i.e. hard wired in)? Or are there "regular" interconnects?

You'll need shielded interconnects in you use a MM cartridge - for a MC you won't.

What type of table is it, and why do you want to change the cable out?

[Pierre.Suave]

5. I am considering it

just to see if I can get even better transmission of sound, not that it has to be done or anything...

It is a VPI table.

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

7. with a VPI arm?

If it's a VPI arm Harry Weisfeld uses pretty good wire in his arms, Nordost or Cardas IIRC. If your tonearm wire terminates in an RCA junction box, obviously an interconnect would do the trick. If you're talking about the wire inside the arm itself, you're probably best off contacting the arm's manufacturer and seeing if there's an upgrade. Also, Triplanar is here in the Twin Cities; Tri Mai, the resident tonearm guru/designer/manufacturer may be able to offer some insight. See www.triplanar.com for the pertinent poop. I know that he uses wire selected by his own listening tests as standard/upgrade wire in the Triplanar VII Ultimate arm.

SOTA Cosmos Series III/Graham 2.2/Dynavector XV-1S here!

[Pierre.Suave]

8. Good to know

I was hoping you would see this, maybe next time I will PM you instead...

:hi:

edit: and I believe it is a JMW arm that came with the table.

Also, due to trying to help a friend out the other day, I now am in possession of a Vintage marantz table, or will be in a few days. A Marantz 6100. Anyway, I think it is gorgeous but probably not up to todays standards with regards to sound, so to keep the looks original but increase the sound capabilities, I am considering upgrading it as well. infact, if I can get it up to the standards of the VPI, I will probably sell the VPI and keep the upgraded Marantz simply because of looks.

it looks like this:

http://www.classic-audio.com/marantz/6100.html

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

10. Pretty! I remember those Marantz tables well!

No way is it ever gonna get up to the standards of a modern VPI, so what you're gonna need to do is get a phono pre with two inputs and keep them both. The Aesthetix Rhea (review findable in the Stereophile online archives - I know the reviewer personally :P) is just such a unit and sounds like a million if you can't afford something like the Manley Labs Steelhead or the new Audio Research Reference Phono 2. Load, gain, input and phase are all adjustable on the fly via remote with the Rhea and ARC.

I have extensive experience with both the Rhea and the Steelhead (my reference for several years) and have heard the ARC RP2 recently in my own system. It pains me greatly to say that it is worth every dime of its $12,000 cost (this coming from a guy who is currently selling plasma for walking around money). It is fully the equal of the perfectly insane $32,000 Boulder 2008 phono pre, which I was able to lay my paws on for three weeks a few years ago, and adds to that all the goodness of tubes and a power supply large enough to handle a 55 wpc power amp. As jaded as I am, hearing the big ARC I felt like a hog staring at a wristwatch - it was beyond my field of reference.

Stick a nice wood bodied Grado in the Marantz for a mellow, old school sound to contrast with the high-res MC equipped (?) VPI and have the best of both worlds.

Happy spinnin' Pierre! :hi: