Ortofon Per Windfeld Load Impedance?

Dear Zieman: +++++ " Right, so when was the last time you saw a 5 meter phono cable? " +++++

just for curiosity: which kind of trade-off(s) are you " trading " to accept that long phono cable?

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

HUH? I have installed higher performing phono cables that allowed a lower input impedance. I find that very low output MCs like to see a lower load. Lots of discussion on other sites got me to try it. Makes sense. I don't recommend long phono leads with low output MCs. I guess I had better dig out the white paper(s) that explained the "cart plus cable" deal. Looks like I am just one of a few here who bothered to read it.

First, my apologies for this thread going OT...

Zieman, perhaps a discussion of cables is appropriate here.

Cables have what is known as 'characteristic impedance'. This value is an impedance such that when the cable is terminated with this impedance, there will be no reflections in the cable. The characteristic impedance of any cable is a combination of its resistance, capacitance and inductance, plus dielectric constants, lead spacing and geometry. The formula for predicting this value is a bit tricky, and measuring it is best done on a Time Delay Reflectometer.

The place where this cable quality really comes into play in audio is speaker cables, not so much interconnects. There is a termination standard in place for balanced line (600 ohms) but for single-ended there really isn't a standard (although single ended cables would benefit from one). This lack of a standard causes single-ended cables to exhibit audible artifacts, which has given rise to the high end audio cable industry, and is the primary reason we decided to produce what was at the time the first balanced line preamplifier for home audio.

The termination of the cartridge at the input of the preamp will also take care of most cable issues. The reason I stress doing the loading properly is I have seen audiophiles compensate for a bright amplifier, amp/speaker mismatch, poor room acoustics and the like by messing with the cartridge loading. The problem is, you can't get it right and the result is often blamed on other equipment which is not at fault.

You can set the load for the cartridge by ear- to do so, you need a variable resistance across the input of the preamp, which starts out very high. It is then decreased (noting that there will be less high frequency energy as this is done). If any change in volume is detected you have gone too far. This is a less accurate technique but IME I have not seen the cable play a role in the final value.

Ralph's point about characteristic impedance is a very important one. IMO, it is another reason why some cables sound different from others and why cables that sound good in one system may sound awful in other systems. I have found for example in my system that low characteristic impedance (<10 ohms) is very important for good sonics. I think this is why Nordost cables, the early ones of which had very high characteristic impedance, were just unbearable in my system, so bright they could make my ears bleed, as the saying goes. Characteristic Z is independent of cable length, by the way.

Independent of length? How come some cable mfgrs change geometry at different lengths in the same model? Res, cap, and ind, are per foot or whatever measure, yes? Surely you lose more than volume (not the word I want) as length increases, particularly with so little to drive it? Like a low output MC. Cartridges that were developed AFTER Fail learned everything... Go slow and use little words please. I read the white papers, I didn't say I understood them...