Cartridge Connectors

[Mr Kipling]

Hi,

Does anyone here use silver or rhodium cartridge connectors?

Back in the late 70s I had a Thorens 160 with Hadcock Super D-Type 228 arm with Ortofon VMS 20 cartridge. I loved the look and sound of it. The Hadcock had silver cartridge connectors. I had a set of gold ones which came with some other cartridge and thinking they would sound better, I fitted them. Somewhat surprised, I found a drop in sound quality resulted for my efforts. There seemed to be a slight loss hf detail. The silver ones were replaced and all was well again.

I gave up hi-fi for a number of years and even after returning to it still don't have a system running as such so haven't had the chance to investigate again. Just wondered if anyone else had.

Kind Regards,
Stephen

[Barry]

My Breuer (Dynamic 5A) tonearm uses gold-plated solid-silver cartridge pin connectors.

Can't say I have ever noticed the difference between silver and gold contacts, and suspect that I couldn't anyway.

If anything, the cleanliness of the connector is, in my opinion, far more important than the material from which it is made. Make sure yours are clean.

Regards

[vouk]

My Breuer (Dynamic 5A) tonearm uses gold-plated solid-silver cartridge pin connectors.

Can't say I have ever noticed the difference between silver and gold contacts, and suspect that I couldn't anyway.

If anything, the cleanliness of the connector is, in my opinion, far more important than the material from which it is made. Make sure yours are clean.

Regards

Ditto. My modded Rega 300 uses Clearaudio's beryllium copper gold plated connectors and I really couldn't tell the difference with previous RB 300's I've used in the past that had copper or silver ones.

[DSJR]

What are your cartridge internals wired with? Ten or more feet of COPPER wire I suspect. Unless you have an out and out "high resolution" system where the tiniest thing makes a silly difference, I really wouldn't worry.

As for general cartridge leads, the ones from Nerve Audio are reasonably priced, as are/were the Sumiko ones and sometimes the Audioquest ones too. They're all similar, if not identical, and it makes the SME and others costing more than double look increasingly like a blatant rip-off IMO.

[Rare Bird]

I use the J.A.Michell clips (Ag over Brass)they really the best ones ive ever used.

[Mr Kipling]

Nice to see you back André. Thanks.

I can only relate to my experience of 77/78. The turntable was a Thorens 160 with damped plinth, top-plate and chassis using Bostik sound deadening pads and the plastic armboard was replaced with a steel one I had made at work. The arm was a Hadcock 228 with nickel phonos . The amp was a Pioneer SA 508 (with flashing lights) and the speakers were Castle Richmond IIs and QED 79 Strand. Not exactly exotic. When I fitted the gold cartridge connectors I did think that perhaps there might be a slight improvement - not the opposite.

True. The coil windings in a cartridge are of course copper. But then again high-end hand-made ones can use silver as do some hand-made paper-in-oil capacitors. Some expensive valve amps use silver in the output transformers. Why? Because silver is the best conductor of electricity, after which comes copper and then gold. You might think cartridge connectors cannot make a difference but in the same vein why should changing a metre of mains cable on an amp (at considerable expense, to my mind) when there are umpteen miles of cable and god knows how many connections between your wall socket and power station.

Do you have to have a high resolution system to hear differences? I'd have to say no. At this same time a then friend had a JVC turntable with Ortnfon FF 15 E cartridge JVC JAS II anp and Wharfedale Linton XP speakers with QED 42 Strand cable. I gave him an ADC headshell and fitted the cartridge for him. It offered some improvement of sorts; nothing quantum. At this time plaiting cables became popular due to an article by Jean Hiraga. I plaited a few strands of QED 49 to make cartridge leads. Fancy leads didn't really exist then apart from some Hitachi POCAN ones, as far as I can remember. The ADC leads were removed and the homemade ones fitted. They were pretty stiff and it was a bit of a struggle. There was a slight loss of top-end detail which I put down to the wire not being plated as the ADC ones were. The big surprise however, was the improvement in the solidarity of the soundfield . Images seemed better focused and there was a better sense of depth.

Well, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Kind Regards,
Stephen