Rewiring removable headshells

[Non-Smoking Man]

As cartridge leads are towards the front of the signal path, one might conclude that rewiring those in standard headshells with something decent might constitute an upgrade. This would seem to be a DIY matter par excellence.
Any advice?
My techie looked at the ADC I intend using on the Micro Seiki MA-202 and commented 'they've been crimped' - implying losses through soldering would negate better wire.
Any thoughts?

Jack NSM

 

[Jazid]

I say tomayto, you say tomarto. The most important points (IMHO) are the tag to cartridge and, if required, arm to interconnect push-on connections. The solder vs crimp argument is a bit of a red herring for low current connections, if properly terminated.

 

[lazycat]

As cartridge leads are towards the front of the signal path, one might conclude that rewiring those in standard headshells with something decent might constitute an upgrade. This would seem to be a DIY matter par excellence.
Any advice?
My techie looked at the ADC I intend using on the Micro Seiki MA-202 and commented 'they've been crimped' - implying losses through soldering would negate better wire.
Any thoughts?

Jack NSM

TBH when I re-wired my Technics arms I put new tags on the inside and they were soldered.
New wiring made quite some difference to my, long gone, SL-Q2 and a modest difference to the original arm on my SL-1210.

Personally I'd ask him to re-wire.

 

[rabski]

As above.

WRT crimping vs soldering, the absolute ideal IME and IMHO is to crimp, then solder. Solder should never be used as a conductive 'glue', as the aim is to give mechanical strength to an electrical joint. Components should be firmly touching before soldering.

 

[Jazid]

I've not had experience of arm rewiring, although I've done a fair few cartridge tags and headshell wires. So did anyone reading try just replacing the tags with tighter fitting ones to see if that made a difference?

 

[lazycat]

I've not had experience of arm rewiring, although I've done a fair few cartridge tags and headshell wires. So did anyone reading try just replacing the tags with tighter fitting ones to see if that made a difference?

My replacement tags were all able to be altered slightly with a slight squeeze or toothpick size allen key to open.

I used Michell tags on my RB300 and Cardas gold on my 2 Technics re-wirings.

The Rega tags were/are an abomination. Look at them and they fall off - I'm not ham-fisted IMO.