New arm cables

[ThomasOK]

This isn't really news as it has been talked about on the Linn forum for a little while but I thought it worth mentioning and also possibly discussing.

In a move that definitely provides a performance boost, Linn has upgraded the cables on all three of the tonearms they currently supply. Starting at the bottom the ProJect 9CC that comes on the Majik LP12 now has a cable using Linn Black interconnect wire and RCAs with the metal SME connector that used to be on the T.Kable replacing the molded plastic plugs and cable. So better cable and better plugs with no price increase, at least in the US.



The Akito gets what used to be the T.Kable with the important difference of a new Linn DIN plug to connect into the arm. This connector makes better contact with the pins and is reputed to improve the sound all by itself. It also has a very neat cover design that provides strain relief for three different size wires by turning the cap 120°. Combined with the wire and Silver RCAs from the T.Kable this gives a substantial performance boost over the old molded cable that used to come with the Akito. The back cable in the photo is the current cable, the front one had a larger plug that was temporarily supplied.



Finally, the Ekos SE now comes with a new T.Kable which is also sold separately as the T,Kable upgrade for other arms (Ekos, Ittok, Akito, etc.). This new T.Kable uses the standard Silver RCAs and the new DIN plug for the arm but now had Mogami W2549 balanced microphone wire in place of the light gray Linn wire of the older T.Kable (now packaged with the Akito 2B). The interesting thing here is that the Mogami wire is claimed by Linn and a few who have heard it to be an upgrade over the wire in the original T.Kable.







It makes me wonder if the Mogami wire with Silver RCAs would outperform regular Linn Silvers? Since the original T.Kable was designed to give the performance of the Silvers with a more flexible sleeve to work well with the suspension and the Mogami is supposed to be better it makes you wonder. On the other hand a tonearm cable does have a bit different job to do with handling much smaller signals and the capacitance being important with many cartridges so the same rules may not apply. Anyone have any thoughts on the merit of Mogami W2549 with Silver RCAs? Anybody plan on a little construction project to test them out?

[lejonklou]

Interesting about the Mogami, Thomas. This must be the first time ever that Linn releases a cable with the original manufacturer's name on it - instead of simply ordering the same cable with a LINN ANALOGUE printing on it. I am quite surprised by this.

I tried some Mogami cables in the past, but none of them were balanced. I spent quite some time trying to make both an interconnect and a speaker cable a couple of years back, but was never fully satisfied with any of the prototypes. Most of the work was spent on optimising how to solder and/or crimp the cable to the connectors, which I found crucial to obtain great performance. Luckily the knowledge gained from that work has since been useable in other areas.

I will give this Mogami a go and see how far I can get. If we're lucky, it could result in a modestly priced great sounding interconnect.

[Tony Tune-age]

Will the newer Linn tonearm cable sound better than the Linn Silver interconnect used with the Urika?

[ThomasOK]

Will the newer Linn tonearm cable sound better than the Linn Silver interconnect used with the Urika?

This is not a comparable product. The new Linn T.Kable is unnecessary on the Urika as the cable from the arm to the Urika is part of the Urika. It is only about 6" long, is very thin and flexible and is soldered to the Urika boards. The new T.Kable came out of research for the Uphorik and the ability to use a balanced connection from the tonearm to the Uphorik. Linn have stated that the advantage of this cabling is the additional screening the balanced cable provides. As the balanced T.Kable looks to use the same Mogami wire, it is likely Linn tried the same wire on the unbalanced arm cable and found it to be superior as well.

The Linn Silvers used on the Urika are connected from the output of the Urika to the preamp so they are functioning at line level. With this level of signal it is unknown whether the Mogami wire is as good as or better than the Silver wire. This is one of the questions I raised at the end of my original post.

[Tony Tune-age]

Will the newer Linn tonearm cable sound better than the Linn Silver interconnect used with the Urika?

This is not a comparable product. The new Linn T.Kable is unnecessary on the Urika as the cable from the arm to the Urika is part of the Urika. It is only about 6" long, is very thin and flexible and is soldered to the Urika boards. The new T.Kable came out of research for the Uphorik and the ability to use a balanced connection from the tonearm to the Uphorik. Linn have stated that the advantage of this cabling is the additional screening the balanced cable provides. As the balanced T.Kable looks to use the same Mogami wire, it is likely Linn tried the same wire on the unbalanced arm cable and found it to be superior as well.

The Linn Silvers used on the Urika are connected from the output of the Urika to the preamp so they are functioning at line level. With this level of signal it is unknown whether the Mogami wire is as good as or better than the Silver wire. This is one of the questions I raised at the end of my original post.

Thanks for the information, there certainly is a great deal of product change going on with Linn.

[paolo]

Interesting information Thomas, maybe I can try making a balanced cable with Mogami and compare with the standard Linn balanced silver just to begin. It would be useful for these comparisons to use the same Neutrik conenctors Linn uses lastly on their balanced T-cables as I think they can be found quite cheap. Anybody knows the exact Neutrik model and if they're any good compared to the old standard balanced connectors?

Paolo

[lejonklou]

Please try that, Paolo, but I'm not convinced it will be a winner. The thing about the new T kable is that I believe the screen isn't part of the signal, only the inner conductors are. As such, it's a pseudo balanced connection, carrying an unbalanced signal.

If you make a balanced IC out of it, the screen will act as signal ground. This might not prove better than Linn's silver balanced cable. Making an unbalanced cable out of the Mogami might prove more fruitful.

[Efraim roots]

Is balanced XLR T.kable better than regular version with phono connectors? If used with phonostage which can take both, like uphorik.

[lejonklou]

Efraim, I believe the only difference between the XLR T kable and the new Mogami RCA T kable is the connectors. The wiring scheme is supposedly the same.

So, is XLR a better connector than RCA? And is the particular XLR model they use on this cable better than the RCA model? I don't know the answer, but I think it boils down to that. And I don't think the difference will be big.

[Efraim roots]

Thanks lejonklou, that's the explanation I needed, I wasn't really clear about what differ XLR and RCA version. But why do Linn make xlr version T.kable then?

Does this mean it is possible to make balanced interconnects with rca connectors, why hasn't this been done in the first place?

[lejonklou]

But why do Linn make xlr version T.kable then?

I don't know... Maybe it was their first tonearm cable with the Mogami - and later they decided to make an RCA version?

Does this mean it is possible to make balanced interconnects with rca connectors, why hasn't this been done in the first place?

For a true balanced interconnect, you need three connections in each end. As far as I know, the XLR T kable isn't balanced and the RCA certainly isn't. They are probably both what's called 'pseudo balanced': An unbalanced cable, carrying an unbalanced signal, with an extra shield that's tied to one end of the cable.

[lejonklou]

Ok, I've installed the Mogami T-kable and my impressions are mixed. As I also messed with the suspension grommets (described in another thread), I can't post any definite opinion yet. But what stands out is that this cable is very different from the old "silver" T-kable it replaced. The Mogami T-kable appears to be very detailed, but also a bit stiff sounding. Will return with a conclusion once I've played some more and isolated the effect of the suspension grommets mod.

I have also spent quite a bit of time trying to make an interconnect with the Mogami cable. Both with Linn "black" connectors, old style Linn "silver" connectors and a connector I've been developing on my own. My conclusion is that the best way to use the cable is to make it pseudo balanced (like in the T-kable but this time with the screen in the source end instead of the receiver end as it's done in the T-kable). There are around 20 other ways to connect this balanced cable with an unbalanced signal, but none of them have been better than pseudo balanced with screen attached to source ground.

Unfortunately, it doesn't excel when used as an interconnect. Compared to the best Linn Silver Interconnect that I have (a very old one from when they were first released), it's nowhere near as good. Compared to newer Linn Silver Interconnects, the Mogami is decent but not as good. The Mogami is dynamic and impressive, but lacks the flow and musicality of the Silver Interconnects.

One conclusion of these experiments is that the sound quality of Linn Silver Interconnects can sometimes vary considerably. Some specimen, most of them really early ones, are magical. I've never heard any interconnects coming even close to them in terms of bringing out the groove and emotion in the music. Other specimen are quite disappointing, not really performing any better than Linn Black Interconnects. Bad performing Silvers always sound more detailed than Blacks, but at the same time, they mess up the timing and the muddle the bass.

If you own several pairs of Silvers, my recommendation is to compare them. Preferably one by one, listening to one channel only. Then use the two best performing ones between source and preamp.

[lejonklou]

Jajo and I just finished an extensive comparison between my old Linn Silver T-kable and the new Linn Mogami T-kable. The verdict is clear: The new T-kable is not good at all.

Will post you more details later.

[Tony Tune-age]

Jajo and I just finished an extensive comparison between my old Linn Silver T-kable and the new Linn Mogami T-kable. The verdict is clear: The new T-kable is not good at all. Will post you more details later.

Wow, that's an interesting finding! Looking forward to further details.

[Tony Tune-age]

This is actually good news for me, because I'm selling my set of Linn Silver T-Kable. Don't need them with the Urika...

I was worried people would want the newer cable over the original.

[lejonklou]

Ok, time for a full report. Jajo and I spent last evening comparing my quite old original T kable (old enough to have the original "silver" connectors with a spring inside the barrel) and a new Mogami T kable. In short, the differences were similar to my experiments with the Mogami as an interconnect, only much bigger. The new T kable is a huge disappointment.

The setup was my LP12 (Radikal/D, Keel, Ekos SE, old T-kable and Adikt) placed on the jig with the Trampolin 2 removed. It was quite interesting to hear what removing the Trampolin did - even when standing on the jig, the music lost solidity and became a little vague and hollow. But it was a tiny difference compared to what the change of T kable did.

I swapped back and forth between old and Mogami T-kable, making sure it wasn't interfering with the suspension before each listening. As I have been using the Mogami for the last week, we started with that. I played Doot Doot by Freur, an album I bought when it was released in the early 80's and have recently rediscovered. The first track opens with the sound of cicadas and these sounded like a synthesizer, slightly annoying and making me consider turning the volume down. Then the song begins and it sounded exact but very sterile. I felt that I had perhaps overrated the qualities of this album.

After changing to the old T kable, the difference in the feeling of the song couldn't be greater. Suddenly it was full of emotion. The sound was softer and didn't highlight the details as much, but everything just jelled and we didn't want to stop listening.

Then we played Tomorrow Started on Talk Talk's album It's my life. After the intro there's a pause for a few seconds. Then Mark Hollis' voice breaks the silence and the bass player starts a groovy flow. We just sunk into it. Great song. I changed to the Mogami and already in the intro things felt stiff and boring. The pause felt awkward. And nothing remained of the grooviness in the bass play, it was reduced to deep bass notes, sounding detailed and exact but not making any sense. The guitar felt cheesy instead of clever. Terrible.

I think it was around this point that Jajo commented "This cable makes your LP12 sound broken". We made some more comparisons and the results were the same every time. Listening with the Mogami was just unbearable. There wasn't really anything wrong with the sound of it, I'd even say it sounds quite precise and detailed. The problem is that the sounds don't sum up to music.

Now, the question arises whether this Mogami T kable is somehow faulty. I don't think so, as I've been making a bunch of interconnects with the same model of Mogami cable, and they have all had this character - only not as much. And based on previous experiences with tonearm cables, it's clear that the signal from a cartridge is far more sensitive than line level signals. Differences between tonearm cables therefore become greater than between interconnects.

Someone might also suggest that the Mogami T kable is intended for MC cartridges. My guess is that with an MC, producing about one tenth of the voltage of an MM, the differences will be the same, but even greater. Note that Linn's old "black" tonearm cable is the same as the Black Interconnect, except for a thicker jacket on the interconnect. And the old T kable is the same as the Silver Interconnect, again apart from the jacket. So clearly, if a cable sounds good as an interconnect, it also sounds good as a tonearm cable.

Anything you'd like to add, Jajo?

[jajo]

Fredrik,

You summed it up perfectly. I am still in a bit of a shock how bad the new T-kable was. I want to believe that it is broken!

It will be interesting to hear other reports about this cable. Unfortunately it is far from easy to swap between the cables. Without the equipment in Fredrik's lab it would be impossible.

/ Jacob

[lejonklou]

I want to believe that it is broken!

Sure you do. I do too, I wish it was a big improvement over my old T kable.

But is it likely that this Mogami T kable is broken? You have heard a few of my experimental Mogami interconnects, didn't they have a similar character? They were far, far below my old Silver Interconnects in performance, just like the Mogami T kable is compared to my old T kable.

[jajo]

You have heard a few of my experimental Mogami interconnects, didn't they have a similar character?

Yes, I am quite sure your T-kable is not broken. The characteristics of the cable reminds me about your experimental interconnects but the difference is much bigger on the arm cable.

/ Jacob

[Tony Tune-age]

Thanks for the detailed "tonearm cable" research Lejonklou and jajo! This information makes me question why Linn made such a change in the first place...perhaps the newer tonearm cable is cheaper?

Plus it's still a mystery (to me) why Linn changed their silver interconnects as well...unless it's about money also.

[lejonklou]

This information makes me question why Linn made such a change in the first place...perhaps the newer tonearm cable is cheaper?

That sounds unlikely, Tony. The cable is really cheap, yes. But a change for the worse, regarless of price, makes absolutely no sense for a company that lives on selling quality products. I really don't get it.

I'm also a bit surprised by the lack of response in this thread. Judged by the amount of views, however, it does seem like people are interested.

[Tony Tune-age]

This information makes me question why Linn made such a change in the first place...perhaps the newer tonearm cable is cheaper?

That sounds unlikely, Tony. The cable is really cheap, yes. But a change for the worse, regarless of price, makes absolutely no sense for a company that lives on selling quality products. I really don't get it.

I'm also a bit surprised by the lack of response in this thread. Judged by the amount of views, however, it does seem like people are interested.

Well, if money isn't the motive or reason for making a less musical (and cheaper) tonearm cable and interconnects...then it becomes even more confusing.

[k_numigl]

I'm also a bit surprised by the lack of response in this thread. Judged by the amount of views, however, it does seem like people are interested.

It is simply difficult to contribute substantially....
Your findings are most surprising, as they seem to go against all
musical aims of Linn. The only thing I could perhaps offer is to lend you
my Mogami T-cable for a double check. I cannot mount it here. (While
I don't expect that your cable is defective.)

[lejonklou]

Thanks for the generous offer, Klaus! Why do you say that you can't mount it?

I would happily do a double check, if I could just muster a slight suspicion that my cable is faulty. Electrically, it isn't. Bad solderings are possible, but identically bad on both channels? Not likely, but possible.

Then there's the fact that I recognise the character of the Mogami cable itself, from the many interconnects I made with it. No matter how it was connected or soldered, it always sounded interesting, but not musical. It was the kind of cable one could perhaps like on a well known song, when one would hear a lot of details and for an instant wondering if this is actually quite good, although perhaps a little fragmented. But on an unknown song, it doesn't make any sense and just fails to touch you emotionally.

EDIT: Replaced 'disintegrated' with 'fragmented'. Sorry if I caused any confusion.

[k_numigl]

Why do you say that you can't mount it?

Only because the Urika's got no input for it...... seems to be kind of
an inflexible, closed design solution.

if I could just muster a slight suspicion that my cable is faulty.

I agree, no immediate reason is apparent.