High quality low capacitance cable?

[MotherSky]

Hi one and all - I want to make up some inconveniently long cables to run from my tonearm to preamp (RCA both ends) - can anyone recommend some high quality low capacitance cable that is available off the reel? I've tried Sommer Spirit LLX and Van Damme Silver Lo-cap 55 - both of which result in a very flat sound, and a significant step down from the Missing Link Alaqeia that I was using previously (this has gone up significantly in price, and is no longer being sold by the metre) - I need to make up a 2M pair, and can stretch to maybe £40 per M - Hifi Collective used to sell stuff made by Yarbo that looked ideal, but it's been discontinued.
Any/all suggestions welcome - MH

p.s. cartridge is a high output moving iron, and it is currently impossible to move my preamp any closer to my turntable

 

[Jazid]

RG59 coax is low capacitance, cheap, and available off the reel. No idea whether you'd like how it sounds but I have used it for long interconnects (7m) without issue. It is not very flexible however, so this may limit use on turntables and arms depending on arm pillar mounting, decoupling of sprung systems &c. Actually it's my "go to" for all interconnects, although I have some foo AN/Kondo stuff as well which I also like.

 

[MotherSky]

RG59 coax is low capacitance, cheap, and available off the reel. No idea whether you'd like how it sounds but I have used it for long interconnects (7m) without issue. It is not very flexible however, so this may limit use on turntables and arms depending on arm pillar mounting, decoupling of sprung systems &c. Actually it's my "go to" for all interconnects, although I have some foo AN/Kondo stuff as well which I also like.

Thanks for that - I should have mentioned that it does ideally need to be flexible - if it's also on the skinny side, even better

 

[John (big)]

Hi one and all - I want to make up some inconveniently long cables to run from my tonearm to preamp (RCA both ends) - can anyone recommend some high quality low capacitance cable that is available off the reel? I've tried Sommer Spirit LLX and Van Damme Silver Lo-cap 55 - both of which result in a very flat sound, and a significant step down from the Missing Link Alaqeia that I was using previously (this has gone up significantly in price, and is no longer being sold by the metre) - I need to make up a 2M pair, and can stretch to maybe £40 per M - Hifi Collective used to sell stuff made by Yarbo that looked ideal, but it's been discontinued.
Any/all suggestions welcome - MH

p.s. cartridge is a high output moving iron, and it is currently impossible to move my preamp any closer to my turntable

I use a Cartridgeman Musicmaster MI fitted with an Isolator, my arm is a Hadcock Silver plus, the plus bit is a 1mm per conductor solid fine silver phono lead. I found exactly as you describe when I tried another phono lead.

My lead is 1 meter long with Switchcraft 3502 A plugs. It is quite flexible.

Len used to remove the center copper conductor of air cored coax cable insert one 1mm silver conductor then use one of the other radial tubes and insert another, the copper foil/mesh shield is/was connected at one end only.

I made the rest of my leads from 0.5mm solid ANNEALED fine silver bought from Wires Co. UK.
for 2 meters I think 0.7 would suffice if you can't find air core coax 2 PTFE tubes wrapped with copper foil.

 

[rabski]

Most manufacturers don't publish capacitance specs. Short of buying loads and measuring it, which will need a very good meter in view of the relatively low levels, it's a bit of a guessing game.

Low capacitance cables will mostly have the conductors relatively widely spaced and individually insulated. The downside is that combined with the requirement for decent shielding (essential in this case) you inevitably get a cable that's thick and not very flexible. I use Neotech 3001 for the turntable, SUT, phono stage setup here, but it's costly (about £55 a metre including the dreaded) and most of all it's utterly massive. Terminating it usually involves drilling out the end casing on phono plugs.

 

[MotherSky]

Thanks chaps for your thoughts - I shall have to do a bit more homework it seems - I have a rather Heath-Robinson arrangement that means my bastardised Hadcock is wired directly to an RCA block that sits above the plinth, and the wiring is routed through from underneath - thus it really does need a decent amount of flexibility. If only I could get my hands on the idiot who designed this system 🤪 - luckily I don't do this for a living....

 

[pmcuk]

https://cpc.farnell.com/pro-signal/...ono-lead-2m/dp/AV14052?st=male to male cables
Pair of RG59 2 metre cables for under a tenner if this is any use.

 

[MotherSky]

I use a Cartridgeman Musicmaster MI fitted with an Isolator, my arm is a Hadcock Silver plus, the plus bit is a 1mm per conductor solid fine silver phono lead. I found exactly as you describe when I tried another phono lead.

My lead is 1 meter long with Switchcraft 3502 A plugs. It is quite flexible.

Len used to remove the center copper conductor of air cored coax cable insert one 1mm silver conductor then use one of the other radial tubes and insert another, the copper foil/mesh shield is/was connected at one end only.

I made the rest of my leads from 0.5mm solid ANNEALED fine silver bought from Wires Co. UK.
for 2 meters I think 0.7 would suffice if you can't find air core coax 2 PTFE tubes wrapped with copper foil.

This does look like the most easily adaptable approach for my purposes, and endorsed by the excellent Mr Gregory into the bargain - would it be ok to PM you for a few more details? MH

 

[John (big)]

This does look like the most easily adaptable approach for my purposes, and endorsed by the excellent Mr Gregory into the bargain - would it be ok to PM you for a few more details? MH

Of course you can as I see it that's what this forum is about sharing knowledge. I do miss my chats with len he was a great loss.

 

[rahman]

I'm selling some Canare LV-61s 75ohm coax IC's in 2m length - 67pf/m.