2. analog
  3. 130213-5377

Vintage DIN phono cables, any good?

The question is about old DIN tonearm phono cables for the top of the line vintage Japanese tonearms. 
I wonder how good those old cables are compared to the mid priced new cables ?

For example an old Audio Craft, SAEC, Fidelity Research, SONY  cables made for their top of the line tonearms are good? It's easy to replace an old RCA connectors, but what about the cables? Some of them are silver and must be a good quality. 

Any thoughts? 
Thanks 
128x128chakster
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

Dear chakster, I meant corrosion of the copper wire but assume

that everyone changed those old RCA connectors(grin). I also

stated ''with some exception'' by tonearm producers who made

their own phono-cables. For example Ikeda produced silver cable

which was available as separate and usually bought for the FR-66.

Micro and SAEC also produced or ordered , say, better cables

for their (more expensive) tonearms. But speaking in general

those old Din 5 cables are worthless despite the fact that our

dear chakster thinks otherwise.

chakster's avatar
chakster OP
6,144 posts
 
@nandric ok, did you re-wired all your tonearm collection?

I have rewired a few vintage tonearms, but the reason was a broken cable, not the upgrade. I already have expensive cryo treated cables, like the one which goes with my Reed 3P (from headshell pins to preamp) and others supplied with the best WBT RCA plugs etc. But some inexpensive vintage tonearms with removable headshells and DIN connectors in between are so good in stock condition that makes me feel a bit sceptical about rewiring. I think most of the new (expensive) phono cables are nothing special and this is the problem. I think $250-300 is expensive for a 1m phono cable. Just curious about cost effective alternative with the vintage cables.       
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

Dear chakster, There is some truth in the old Roman confusion

between the truth and the autority. Aristoteles still rule in some

social ''sciences'' with his autority. Well as Rauls best student

you should be sensitive for his argument. You of course know

why he refuse to buy any cart with inbuilt headshell. The reason

is corroded (headshell) wire. My own argument is about the

money. You stated that $250-300 is expensive for 1m cable.

But I guess that the most of your MM carts are more expensive.

I seldom use my MM carts while my MC carts are much more

expansive than the MM kind. Why should I then mess with

those old mediocre cables from the 80is?

BTW my SUT's adventure started recently. To start with I bought

Ikeda's  FR -3. He uses uitput cables instead of output connectors.

I wanted to change the connectors but was shocked with the

state of wire. So, it seems, even Raul is sometime right (grin).

One need to compare FR SUT's with, say, Denon AU-S1 to

see and hear the difference. Anyway I hope you deed not spend

mucho dollars for your speaker wire(grin).

chakster's avatar
chakster OP
6,144 posts
 
@nandric

Anyway I hope you deed not spend mucho dollars for your speaker wire(grin).


I did, long time before, tried various brands and stopped on Stereovox Firebird designed by Chris Sommovigo, same with interconnects (Stereovox Colibri with Xhadow RCAs) and finally managed to get Stereolab Master Referense Phono RCA cable here on audiogon. Chris has moved from USA to Japan and excluded all distribution chane from his business, he sells direct. His cables are the most impressive ones that me and my local hi-end mates has ever heard. It’s like changing the component in your system. I think the hi-end business is in big chrisis now. Luckily we can buy them all used for 50% off. But i’m not intended to buy $600-2000 high-end cables for each of my vintage tonearms anymore.

Maybe you're right about vintage cables, i will try, if they are crap i do rather buy signal cable from Frank, but they are all silver (i have no silver cables in my system). 

BTW those German guy (i forgot the name) who supply cables for Reed makes the affordable phono cables, i use one of them, it was replaced with Cryo one with better RCAs at Reed factory. The old one was removed directly from Reed tonearm Then i have soldered DIN connector to that cable to use it with one of my vintage tonearm and that's ok, but not special.  
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 

Dear chakster, It is a question of preference while we also need

to save on something or other. So I use, for example, Bullet RCA

instead of WBT (grin). Thanks to my brother Don (Griffiths) I can

get those Signal cables with discount and use for both; IC's and

phono-cables. Pure silver or silver coted copper wire. One of

my FR-64s has silver inside the other copper. I think that the

armwand wire is better isolated than the (old) phono-cables wire.

This may explain the fact that there are not much complains about

(inside) wire by the ''old tonearms''. Except by Rega 300 for my

son I never changed inside wire by any of my tonearms.

BTW I am not a wire fetishist.

More to discover