Superline and tonearm cables

Recently I bought Korf tonearm that came with a DIN connection but no cable. I’ve never had to buy a separate tonearm cable before and my first stab at it with an Ortofon cable wasn’t a complete success. The problem occurs when attaching the ground wire to the superline which causes the latter to pick up all sorts of noise, unplugging the cable at the arm end doesn’t change its level or nature in the slightest so it’s all down to the cable not suiting the superline. I can run it without the ground connected and there’s just the usual hiss instead of the pops, cracks and voices. Long term I’d rather my tonearm was grounded however.

When I first got the superline a year after it was launched it did pick up radio when using a Rega RB300 and then an Aro but this was cured when I changed from a Target rack to Fraim. Subsequently I’ve used my Schröder Reference with a continuous run of Cardas wire without any noise issues.

Looking at the cables the Aro has separated cables for the two channels and separate ground, the Schröder has a single run, possibly screened or just a ground wire alongside in the sheath but of low diameter, the Ortofon is a rather more butch affair, half inch dia with a substantial screen around a 4 core cable.

What have people had success (and failures) with on a superline. Does a screen always create problems or is its diameter a factor?My current thinking is to get something a bit more like the Aro’s cable, top money for me would be the Lyra phonopipe but I’d rather spend less.

@Mitch I seem to remember you’ve a fondness for Luna cables but they look to have a braided screen, any problems with their tonearm cable?

To me, this seems to be an Earthing/Grounding problem - which is related to the actual arm itself.

If earthing/grounding the arm makes things worse, then my guess is the arm is already earthed somehow…?

One for the experts on such things. Maybe @Richard.Dane can offer something…?

Maybe also check with Korf Audio? Just in case it’s something they’ve seen before?

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I’m not sure I would call my self any sort of “expert” on such matters but I do have a bit of experience which may or may not help.

The main issue with the Superline is where you use the RCA Phonos. WBT Next Gens are nice but they do come with some fitment and compatibility issues with various RCA Plugs. The main problem is getting a good contact on the outer conductor. Best here are WBT’s own matching plugs (although be careful as if they are incorrectly orientated then there will be no contact!) or plugs that can be locked down really tight. Failure to get a really good contact will result in poor sound or bad hum, or a combination of both.

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I have a Chord Music Slim Tonearm cable from my Aro( on my Tangerine LP12) to Superline / SupercapDR. Sounds fabulous and no problems whatsoever.

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I had an earth hum from my Superline. We fixed it by running a thin & cheap wire from the sub-chassis directly to the earth point on the back of the 52 pre-amp. That earth is intended for the phono input - not where I have plugged in the Superline.

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The arm is mounted on a polycarbonate arm board which itself is screwed to bamboo laminate. There’s no other ground connection to the arm, I do have the maim bearing grounded but this is also mounted in bamboo and removing this connection doesn’t change matters. The motor is DC powered via two wires, there is no contact between the motor parts and any conductor. Besides which just connecting the cable to the superline via its RCA and ground wire without connecting it to the arm results in the various noises, also breaking the ground contact at the DIN plug has no effect. The only cure while using this arm is to not connect its ground cable to the superline. Touching the ground cable to the outer of the Snaic socket and thus to chassis earth produces the noise at a lower level than using signal ground.

The RCA plugs are a firm fit on the sockets but go on a fair way with no wobble.

I haven’t tried unplugging the ND555 to break the link between signal ground and earth because it’s touch and go whether it will start again successfully, something I’ve emailed Naim support about.
I have tested continuity between signal ground and earth and it’s good.

Do the plugs clamp? If not, even though they may fit tightly, they may not be making a good contact with the outer conductor part of the WBT socket. This is because the metal conductor part is usually very slightly recessed from the plastic, so you either need the proper plugs or a clamping plug where you can really tighten down on the socket. Regarding the latter point, even here it’s easy to go wrong. I thought I had really tightened the collars on the locking RCA plugs on my RP10 but was getting poor sound and hum. Turned out I hadn’t tightened them enough. Tightening as far as I dared the sound improved markedly and no more hum.

So to check this I removed the DIN connector from the arm, easy to do in this case. then connecting just one RCA at a time to the superline I tested resistance from the DIN plug contact for that channel’s return to the outer contact of the other channel’s RCA socket on the superline. Both gave 0.1Ω, which is the same as contacting the two meter probes to each other.

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@Mitch I seem to remember you’ve a fondness for Luna cables but they look to have a braided screen, any problems with their tonearm cable?

Hi Yeti,

You have an excellent memory. I do have an extreme fondness for Luna cables. I have them throughout my entire system…except for the tonearm cable.
My Kuzma TT with the Kuzma 14 point tonearm cam with a cable and Danny Labrecque, the owner of Luna, told me there was no need to switch it out. so I just stayed with the Kuzma cable.

I’m not sure if Luna makes a tonearm cable, (I don’t think they do) but it would be easy enough to find out by going to their web site.

Sorry to be of such little help.

Mitch

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I had a similar issue which was cured by connecting the earth wire to the ground on my 252 as opposed to the one on the Superline. No idea why it worked but it did.

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Ana Mighty sound in Paris list Luna including their tonearm cables. I was hoping you’d be either able to eliminate them from consideration or possibly confirm whether they worked with the superline… Thanks for the response anyway.
I’ll see how this thread runs but I may need to contact François to see if he can let me try one.

I tried the 552 ground tag amongst other permutations, there was one with the bearing and arm cable grounds on different boxes that started a fairly unpleasant oscillation.

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