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Extremephono Tonearm Cable 

The tonearm cable started as a project to build a 'correct' tonearm cable design for modern high-performance MC cartridges, as none in the market offers all the right ingredients that support the Extremephono philosophy for correct music reproduction.    The problems with conventional designs are their mistakes in focusing the priority on 'protection', but Extremphono tonearm cable's primary goal is that of 'preservation'.   It is all too common to have a $4000 turntable, $3000 tonearm, $2000 cartridge, and a freebie tonearm cable - the first cable in every audio system is the most important, as information can never be recreated once it's lost in the first place.

High-end MC cartridges have output as low as 0.1mV, and a coil impedance of 10 to 30 Ohm.  At this level, based on a typical S/N ratio of 60dB, the essential music information is carried by voltages as low as 0.0000001V.  It is extremely difficult to preserve signals with such small magnitude, as proven in physics that 2 categories of intrinsic noise exist in electrical conductors that will impact this signal.  One is self-induced noise caused by Lentz's Law. Lentz's law states the current induced in a conductor by a changing magnetic flux will flow in such a direction that its magnetic field opposes the change.  In plain English, when MC cartridge generates a signal, it will face an opposing current that is caused by the amount of conductor mass.  To reduce the magnitude 'opposite current', the only way is to reduce the mass of the current conductors.  The second type of noise is called the Junction Noise (also known as thermal noise), caused by the oxide impurities acting as semiconductor (or diode) junctions.  By reducing impurities through the use of silver instead of copper, and other techniques, such as keeping the conducting wire as thin as possible, Extremephono tonearm cable reduces the negative effects caused by the aforementioned phenomena. 

The Extremphono tonearm cable features:

Light weight construction - The lightweight construction will not upset a turntable/tonearm compliance.  Conventional design tonearm cable's unnecessary mass acts as a mechanical capacitor, i.e. a 'sponge' that absorbs then releases the mechanical energy over time.  The more weight, the bigger the 'sponge'.  Maintaining a lightweight cable construction retains minimal energy, so not to smear the transient and reduce the rhythmic quality of the music reproduction. 

Very fine conductors - using very fine silver thread, horrible to work with, but is the only way to maintain the integrity of the signal by reducing the self-induced noise.  A custom version using 50-50 alloy made of gold and silver is available - the best conductor for phono application, 50-50 gold/silver alloy can be made extremely thin and flexible, even finer than the silver conductors.

Porous Teflon dielectric - expensive but more effective the solid Teflon dielectric and is the best, practical dielectric solution. 

Faraday Cage shielding - Using Faraday cage, the shielding is effectively isolated from the signal carrying leads, so that signals are not 'damped' by the proximity from the shielding.

Characteristic impedance optimized for MC cartridges - Conventional tonearm cable design did not address the fact that MC cartridge is a current-generating motor, and the energy transfer between cartridge and phono stage must be optimized by an interconnect with matching characteristic impedance.  Extremephono tonearm cable is the only cable known to maintain approximately 100 ohm characteristic impedance suitable for high-performance MC cartridge.  (* see Notes on cartridge loading.)

Stress-relieving process - the tonearm cable is treated with a unique metallurgical process to remove mechanical stress built up during wire construction.  It is not known at this time other audio cables utilize this process.  (Extremephono offers optional Stress-relieving treatment for internal tonearm wiring)

Unique custom connectors - The connectors on Extremephono tonearm cable look "cheesy".  They are 'cheesy' for a purpose.  The right-angle DIN is reworked to be light and rigid, and the RCA's are specially made with silver conductor 

User-friendly, flexible design adapts to all turntable/tonearm systems - Owners of Linn LP12 can use the Extremephono tonearm cable in the Linn with a perfect fit. 

The Standard (SJIS901)

The Reference (RJIS901)

The Limited Edition (GJIS901)

*click on any of the above pictures to enlarge details.

Users' comments

Stereotimes.com review of the Limited Edition tonearm cable.

"I have just replaced my Linn cable with the silver interconnect from Extreme Phono. Wow, what an improvement, the original that came with the turntable was a really nasty, cheap piece of work. Casey at Extreme custom makes his cable to fit the LP12 & therefore I encountered no problems when I installed the new cable. I was so impressed with Casey's apparent understanding of the LP12's design limitations that I went ahead & replaced the original sub-chassis & armboard with their his carbon fibre parts. I also dumped the Akito arm & replaced it with an SME Model 10. The sonic performance is was amazing! Moral of the story, don't always listen to the Linn dealers, they have square Earth thinking as far as tampering with the deck is concerned"

"Well...there is no comparison. This is hands down the best music reproduction I've ever achieved at home. Every single aspect of the musical presentation improved in spades, solidly trouncing my previous analog set up and my Muse Model 9 signature. Soundstaging, air, bass articulation and depth, top to bottom tonal "integrity", retrieval of detail, micro and macro dynamics, and last (but not least) PRAT were all at a new plateau. What is utterly scary is that the tonearm cable is still a good 30 hours away from break-in..so this can only get better.

Casey's cable is EXTREMELY well constructed (finish is MUCH better than the Graham IC-30 I owned briefly) with maniacal attention to detail. Like in the Hovland cables, Casey uses very low mass RCA's, though his are made entirely of silver. My only quibble is that my Linto's RCA jacks are a bit too short/thin to provide good ground contact, but this was easily remedied by tightening (slightly deforming) the RCA plus. I will be posting further impressions as the cable burns in, but the investment (to my ears) thus far appears VERY worthwhile (especially considering that my loss if I tried to sell my LP12 and purchase a more "modern" table would far exceed the cost of the mods)"

 

Ordering

Extremephono is confident that the Extremephono tonearm cable has no equal.  It is the best designed and engineered tonearm cable regardless of price.  If you are currently auditioning tonearm cable, don't settle for lesser cable.  

To order, please contact Extremephono.  All of the higher-end cable (except Crimson) are custom build to order.

Money back guarantee - Regardless of any reason, within 30-day, return the item in its original condition for a full-refund.   

Part Number

Description

SJIS901

The Standard - Pure silver multistrand fine conductors, Teflon dielectric. 90-degree DIN for Linn, SME, Graham tonearm.

SJISST1

The Standard with straight DIN for most Japanese tonearm.

SRCA1

The Standard with RCA-RCA for turntable system with only RCA output jacks

RJIS901

The Reference - Extremephono's statement tonearm cable.  Very fine 0.003" diameter single-strand high purity silver conductor, porous Teflon diecltric provide unprecedented details and refinements.  90-degree DIN for Linn, SME, Graham.

RJISST1

The Reference with straight DIN for most Japanese tonearm.

RRCA1

The Reference with RCA-RCA for turntable system with only RCA output jacks

GJIS901

The Limited Edition - Exhaustively difficult to make using the best and exorbitantly expensive proprietary mix of  'extreme' finer than human hair Gold/Silver alloy conductors with porous Teflon.  All the unprecedented details and refinements like the Reference, but the LE adds extra bloom and finesse to the music playback.  Recommended for the finest analog setup only.  90-degree DIN for Linn, SME, Graham tonearm.

GJISST1

The L.E. with straight DIN for most Japanese tonearm.

GRCA1

The L.E. with RCA-RCA for turntable system with only RCA output jacks.