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Captive tonearm cable - any advantages?

Was just looking at the Clearaudio Concept turntable, and I notice that it has a captive tonearm cable. Is there any advantage to this (other than to keep me from spending too much on exotic cables)? It seems to be rather limiting to prevent one from using their favorite cable or to fine-tune system synergy. Not sure if it's a deal-breaker, but it's certainly a big strike in my book. Any opinions on the matter? Does it limit the ultimate performance of the table?

Thanks,
Scott
smrex13
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
5,112 posts
 
Theoretically, its better to have the single cable rather than plugs, to other cable connections. If done correctly, the advantage is greatly mollified.
lewm
6,770 posts
 
The best connector is no connector. The RCA interface is among the worst for damaging the signal. Or in this case, maybe we're talking about a DIN interface. Either way, it's a physical connector in the path of a tiny signal. I think it's fair to assume that Clearaudio uses "good" wire. The benefit of getting rid of the connector far outweighs the fact that you would be deprived of choosing a boutique interconnect to mate to the output of the tonearm, IMO. When possible I always re-wire a tonearm to achieve a straight shot from cartridge to phono input.
ebm
5,165 posts
 
My TW 10.5 tonearm has cable wired directly into arm less connections better sound.This depends on the cable used before i was using Purist the cable that comes with my arm is better in my system.
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