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September 12, 2007 - 5:10pm
#1
Long turntable interconnect
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Honestly at 18' feet I can't see how you are going to keep your signal, which out of a turntable is absolutely TINY, clean. That's just too long. Maybe if you had a phono pre-amp right there with the table you'd get a signal strong enough. And whatever the Kimber cable you were looking at is not going to help over that length. Try thinking out of the box about how to get your table closer. Having on the wall is nice, but should come second to having a good strong signal. 2 meters even is pushing it IMO.
True, phono cables should be no longer than about one meter in length. If this is the only way to make the system work, the phono pre amp located at the table should be able drive the length of cable you require. Make certain the phono pre amp has a fairly low output impedance, about 500-600 Ohms or you will still be loosing signal.
Thanks guys, I'll use the phono pre amp as a last resort. How about if I used a 2 tier wall rack and moved my amp below the turntable. Keeping my (good quality) speaker wires equal lengths I would need 2 sets at 16 feet. I may plug in a CD player later but there would be room for it on top of the amp. Therefore the speaker wires would be the only longer cables needed. Can you foresee any problems with this?
Long speaker wires aren't ideal, but they're a heck of a lot better than long tonearm interconnects. There's so much more current coming from the amplifier; It likely won't be very detrimental to the system's sound if you add an incremental amount of resistance.
I got home from work this evening and measured for the 2 tier rack. By going this route I can get by with 13 foot speaker runs. Still not ideal but this is the way I'm going to go unless I hear something negative before the weekend. Thanks for the input and I'll report back in a few weeks after everything is "burned in" to give my impressions, good or bad.
YUP.
Just plonking a turntable down because it fits somewhere is most likely to result in the worst possible position you could have chosen. Any table sounds like its support system. If you're considering a non-suspended deck such as a Rega, you cannot place it without reasonable care. And, many suspended decks are unlikely to do well at the top of a two tiered rack, particularly if you room is built on a pier and beam foundation. It sounds like you have a decision to make. But please believe placing the table properly will result in far better sound than placing it just where it fits.
Jan, Thanks for the input and I completely understand what you're saying. Perhaps I should give more detail on my situation. I live on the top floor of a duplex that my brother and I built. It's about the size of an average 2 bedroom apartment. While under construction I hard wired the living room for 5.1 (Bose Acoustimass) which are mounted to the ceiling. The display is a 40" LCD which of course is centered under the middle speaker. This greatly reduces my options for flexibility. The wall rack I'm considering is specifically designed for turntables and mounts to the studs in the wall which is supposed to isolate it from vibration. It also has leveling screws for the top shelf. I do have one other option which is to replace my current audio rack. It's a good quality (older) Bel'oggetti which I really like. The frame work however extends over the top which would make the turntable operation very cumbersome. Good quality (and reasonably attractive) audio racks aren't cheap. In addition, it would need to be large enough to hold all the gear. This would reduce the speaker runs from 13 feet to 10 feet which I'm not sure would justify the expenditure. If however, this would be sonically superior I would most certainly consider it. Thanks again for the help.
Going from 13' to 10' will not improve the situation by much. Keep the cables as short as possible. Turntables typically respond well to wall mounted shelves. If your situation doesn't provide your shelf being situated on your stud wall mounting, welded wall mount shelves are not very expensive compared to what you would pay to get equal performance from a floorstanding unit. The other option is the phono pre amp located close to the table.
I know I'll live to regret asking, but what pray tell is wrong with 10 to 13 foot speaker cable runs?
Sheesh...could we try to keep it real?
RG
Nothing is really wrong, it's just not ideal. I have a 10-foot pair, which is more than I need. I thought it better than buying 7 feet and not having enough to cover myself in future scenarios. (I don't plan on changing cables often. $40 once is enough for me.)