New Tonearm cable, XLR or RCA?

[Perister]

Hello
I have recently decided to take on a 'Garrard 401' journey, and while few things are already in place (except the 401 unit itself), I have bought a Jelco 750D tonearm, as I think that for the price is quite a VFM.
as I do plan in the future to acquire my dream tonearm, that being an SME v or IV, I decided to spend some money on the tonearm cable, so o be able to use it further on a higher 'calibre' tonearm.
more (or less) I have decided to buy a cable from Yiannis Tome, as I have already an RCA interconnect from him with which I am very happy (for the price!)
Now my question is: as my phono pre (Chord Symphonic MC) has both RCA & XLR inputs, should I opt to get an XLR terminated cable?
bear in mind that (at least for the moment) I do not plan to change the interconnect (which will still be RCA to RCA).
any thoughts/suggestions?

many thanks!

[RothwellAudio]

I've just checked the specs for that phonostage - max gain 85dB!!!??? :eek:
That's a huge amount of gain and only suited to extremely low output cartridges of about 0.03mV. I'm not sure what the signal-to-noise ratio would be like but I'd be interested to hear it. Anyway, it also does more realistic levels of gain too.

Balanced connections from turntable to phonostage have always seemed like a good idea to me and since your phonostage has balanced inputs I see no reason not to take advantage of them.

[Arkless Electronics]

I've just checked the specs for that phonostage - max gain 85dB!!!??? :eek:
That's a huge amount of gain and only suited to extremely low output cartridges of about 0.03mV. I'm not sure what the signal-to-noise ratio would be like but I'd be interested to hear it. Anyway, it also does more realistic levels of gain too.

Balanced connections from turntable to phonostage have always seemed like a good idea to me and since your phonostage has balanced inputs I see no reason not to take advantage of them.

+1

[Spectral Morn]

+ 2

[Perister]

may thanks for your replies Gents!
main reason for questioning was the fact that the interconnect between the phono and amp will still be unbalanced.
BTW, the specs on the Chord site for the phono is all over the place! I had to have a call with the designer of the phono himself (I know, a very rare things these days with large multinational companies buying all the traditional smaller manufacturers) in order to clarify the settings.
the phono is a revelation really! it really 'sings' with my Dynavector DV20XL, and I am sure it will do justice to more expensive carts as well.
more than welcome to come over and listen to it when you are in Bristol!

[RothwellAudio]

main reason for questioning was the fact that the interconnect between the phono and amp will still be unbalanced.

It doesn't matter - any benefits you get from using a balanced cable between the turntable and phonostage won't be undone by using unbalanced between phonostage and amp or pre-amp.

[Perister]

thanks again!

[cyclopse]

Yannis Tome interconnects,- use them myself. The signal coming from the cartridge is always going to be unbalanced. Then there is the different input sensitivity of rca compared to xlr inputs. Speaking to the phono manufacturer was a great idea. Pleased to hear you got the system 'unpacked'.

Using different speakers these days.

Regards

Cyclopse

[RothwellAudio]

The signal coming from the cartridge is always going to be unbalanced.
No, the signal coming from the cartridge is fully floating and therefore inherently balanced, unless you unbalance it. The coils in the cartridge are no different from the coils in a moving coil microphone, and they're almost always used balanced.

[Qwin]

.
This is my DIY Balanced lead, from TT to Phono stage, which I knocked up this evening.

http://www.jkwynn.co.uk/Cables/Pics/Cable_02.JPG

This cable is twisted pair with Copper conductors and a Copper screen, it's 4.6mm dia and less than £2.00/M.
Those 5pin DIN plugs are bleedin expensive though, that one connector was 60% of the total build cost.
I've used separate cables for Left/Right channels to minimize the chance of cross talk. I think this is preferable to using 4 conductor star quad etc under a single screen.
Van Damme do a similar cable that's 4.8mm dia, but the conductors are silver plated Copper.

Remember, when connecting your cartridge as a balanced output, to remove any ground connections from the negative pins/cables from the cartridge.
Rega for one, fit a strap from the right channel neg pin to the cartridge body on some models, this and any other ground connections to the cartridge pins must be broken.