Some thoughts about tonearm wire

@lewm Actually, the 0.080 Ohms is not my criterion, it was posted earlier in this thread by westcoastaudiophile.  I don't know how s/he came up with that or if it was published somewhere.  Either way, if a tonearm wire resistance is that low, it would be hard to beat for a MC setup.  Given there are multiple contacts in the chain and round trip to the preamp and back, I suspect it is more than 80 milliohms.  When I get the tonearm back from service, I will try to measure the resistance of that tiny wire.

I suspect, but have no way to prove it, that one continuous length of wire with no contacts, just soldered connections from cartridge pins to preamp input, the sound quality will be dominated by this rather than the type of wire in the conductor.  

"Twisting increases C, and running them side by side might increase L"  Actually, twisting decreases L, not increases it.  The reason is the same for side by side wiring, current in one direction induces a current in the adjacent conductor in the opposite direction.  But since this is the direction the current is flowing in the adjacent conductor, inductance decreases.  As the wires move apart, inductance then increases while capacitance decreases.  In this case, resistance remains constant.  Increasing the gauge of the wire changes everything, but the basic rules remain the same.  

Spatial, please reread your own 3rd paragraph. You accurately quoted me then completely reversed the sense of what I wrote. We don’t disagree. As to discrediting you with the bit about 80 milliohms, sorry for that. I wonder how west coast came up with such a precise cutoff.  And how he measures it.
My own experience with running phono wires from cartridge to phono with no intervening connectors suggests it makes a big difference with LOMC cartridges, for the better.

"And how he measures it.” easy, using four point probing and nice Keithley 2016-P tester, here is description of principles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-terminal_sensing 

0.08 Ohm is critical for MC carts, in my case for using 4 Ohm and below output impedance carts. yes, there is a round trip for signal in each channel, which increases total tonearm only portion of resistance to 0.16 Ohm. combined with arm-to-SUT/pre-cable, that resistance increases easily to 0.2..0.3 Ohms level, which is significant relatively to MC output Z, thus such “small value" does affect SQ. typically tonearm wires resistance is lesser issue than contacts, if wires are not oxidized etc. silver/gold plated contacts can be damaged, and need to be inspected under microscope for plating surface integrity. 

Now we are cooking, checking plated contacts going under the microscope.

Is not a pure metal the better option connections, such as the Pure Silver and Pure Copper Male and Female connections that can be found?

On a 40ish year old Tonearm, the likely hood the wires are going to be oxidised, is very high, as a period of Non-usage, air tracking into the space between Wire and Sheath or the sheath developing an Acidic Property are all going to create oxidation and on a Olden Wire all three conditions referred are most likely already occurred.

It always comes down to the same old equation, buy a 40ish year old Tonearm like many many do from a range of Brands as well as a range of Countries.

On such a Tonearm will be mount a Cartridge, in some cases a Cert' produced in a very similar era, in another Case a much more modern Cart' and ultimately a Cart' from a very modern production costing multiple thousands.

At what level of Cart' and Tonearm Interface does one concern themselves about how optimised the Signal Path is as a result of the Wire contained within the Tonearm and the Connection to be passed through in the Tonearm.

In my case on a Tonearm of this Vintage, it has proved to be its absolute best electronically, when a certain wire diameter of a certain wire type has been used a  continuous wire, which is the Tag Connection at the Cart' end and RCA Connection at the opposite end.

Any Cart' of any vintage can now sing its heart out, with its very best voice.

I encourage, investigation, confidence gathering, much learning an then make the educated decision about where one would like to place their Tonearm in the Modern World.

Leave it to do its speaking as original and quite likely quite compromised in the electrical interface, or give it a chance to speak with a modernity, with a new pureness to its electrical interface.

Either choice made is not a concern to me, but the time out to understand why the decision is to be made, is where the real value is to be found.      

"Now we are cooking, checking plated contacts going under the microscope"

interconnects is quite complex science, with many variables, such as contacts metallurgy, contact pressure/area etc. depending on specific scenario, contacting resistance could vary (or to be noisy) up to x100 times!