Question for Platter spinners regarding IC

To the OP, I would not be too quick to blame perceived sibilance on the new cable.  There are a myriad of other causes, such as VTA, VTF, the cartridge by nature, etc., that may contribute to or cause sibilance. It’s possible that the superior performance of the new cable has simply revealed sibilance that was masked by the previous cable.  Or that sibilance is on the LP itself. Try increasing VTF by 0.1 or 0.2g.

If you like what you have right now, I advise sticking with it for at least several weeks or months so you get a fixed idea of the sonic character of your system with this cable in place.  THEN you might want to play around, if that sort of thing appeals to you.  In that event, the idea of borrowing cables from the Cable Company (mentioned by tablejockey above), where you can have a free home trial, is a good one.

And for a countervailing opinion, I have found that the low to medium price Nordost cables make my ears bleed. In fairness, I have never heard their megabuck top line cables.

Sleepwalker, So we can agree not to “scare” people.  Your point about letting people experiment for themselves was exactly mine.  I wondered whether you were quoting me in fact.  The OP just needed to know that he would do no harm to his system by his performing his little experiment, a very little one at that.

Gillatgh, You never mentioned what cartridge you are using.  It makes a big difference between MM and MC types.  MM types are very sensitive to capacitance in that some of them do best with ADDED capacitance in parallel with the input; high-ish capacitance in the cable is not necessarily a bad thing, but there is such a thing as too much, if you’re using an MM. (That’s why I think it is shameful of AQ doesn’t give you the info on their cables.) MC cartridges with relatively low output are much less sensitive to capacitance, except to keep it low as possible.  The manufacturer of a good MM cartridge should stipulate the best capacitative load. But I have found in this hobby more often than not that rules are made to be broken or ignored.

Just try it.
if you like it , it’s good.

Sleepwalker, in theory you’re correct about the importance of shielding, but in specific cases it adds nothing except unwanted capacitance. You generally cannot have “ultra” low capacitance AND shielding in the same cable. Keeping phono cables short as possible is the best bet.

but don’t scare the OP out of doing is own experiment.

There is absolutely no possible way to harm anything by trying one pair of ICs versus another between the tonearm and your phono stage. It is sad, however, that a company like audioquest, which makes audiophile interconnects, does not list the capacitance of their cables, if that is really the case. However, there is no way to do any harm by trying. Listen for high frequency extension. Use what sounds the best to you. Pay no attention to anything else or anyone else.

In a phono connection you generally want shielded interconnects, but whether that is really important in your locale is only to be determined by you. Shielding per se increases capacitance. So often there is a trade-off, if your cartridge is particularly sensitive to capacitance. (In which case you may sense a slight roll off of high frequencies, as suggested.)