This Canare is a premium shielded starquad cable. Canare StarQuad obtains its name from the 4-conductor style construction that minimizes the “loop area” between twists of the conductors. This “double balanced” pairing, reduces susceptibility to electromagnetically induced noise.
The cable consists of four 26 AWG annealed copper conductors with Cross Linked PE Insulation and a braided copper shield. This is the slim version of the Canare starquad with 4.8mm overall diameter. It is extremely flexible, using fine stranded high conductivity copper cores and specially formulated PVC compounds that combine to make a soft yet strong and durable outer jacket with excellent flexibility. Handling noise is minimised by the use of cotton fillers. The irradiated polyethylene core insulation provides a low capacitance dielectric. This cable effectively rejects EMI and RFI thanks to its dense braided shield. Canare does not use spiral (serve) shields because they can spread apart with use. The Canare shield is more difficult to manufacture because it uses many thin copper strands in a densely woven braid. This shield is super flexible and offers outstanding noise rejection
Our star-quad tonearm cables are professionally finished, running through a continuous length of conductors. We construct the cable in such a way that we maintain full, continuous shielding throughout its length (from the tonearm connector to the XLRs), while keeping the ground and interference paths entirely isolated from the signal conductors enhancing the detail and maintaining a quite background.
The cable is not only sonically excellent. It will also impress with its professional construction.
The quality of our work on this type of cables is second to none. Not only we have the expertise but we also dedicate a considerable amount of time to ensure that the cable assembly is prepared and finished in the highest standards. We keep stock of various types and grades of shields, inner insulating materials as well as outer PVC and silicone compound jackets to construct and finish our cables in the most appropriate way. All the relevant electrical and mechanical parameters are taken into consideration and the success of the end product is evaluated by actual measurements prior to any personal, subjective interpretation of its performance.
StarQuad cables: It is important to explain that we do not use our quad cables in the traditional pairing mode which is often the case with mic cable assemblies and aims at the further reduction of noise in larger lengths. Such use of a starquad cable inevitably results to quite high levels of capacitance. With appropriate wiring configuration Quad cables offer a unique advantage of isolating all paths. “Send”(signal), “return” (signal ground), shield & chassis ground remain independent from each other for the entire length of the cable and keep the overall cable capacitance at minimum levels while while preserving a dual mono structure within a common enclosure (screen).
The above configuration of quad cables requires extensive customization of the cable in order to maintain a continuous shielding from one end to the other and preserve the original cable characteristics. Hence these cable assemblies are not simply a matter of fitting plugs on a bulk, off the reel cable; they are products of extensive work and their construction requires the use of various materials and expertise in order to lead to a successful result both in terms of its performance and build quality. The Mogami and Canare starquad cables we use, under the given configuration have a capacitance between 62pF/m and 67pF/m at 1kHz (depending on the exact cable design). These are actual, measured figures (not estimates based on manufacturer specs.) and they take into account stray capacitance in a typical operating environment. These figures do not take into account any additional capacitance resulting by the use of the connectors.
The tails of these starquad cables have been reworked using the same techniques and materials that we use on our top line handmade cables. The insulating materials and the shields we use on these reconstructed portions exceed by far the standards of the original assembly. At the same time the finish of the cable is outstanding ensuring both durability and flexibility but it also maintains a very appealing overall profile.
The tails of this Canare cable have been finished using the original, black Canare cable jacket.
We hope that it is clear that the labour, materials and expertise we apply on these cables are by far beyond what one would expect from a cable at this price range.
Selecting your product options:
Length: Choose the length you require. The price of the cable will be adjusted automatically. If you wish to order your cable at a length other different from the ones listed, please contact us for a quote.
Ground connection to peramp: Choose whether you require an external ground connection for the phono preamp or not. If you choose not to have an external ground connection to the phono preamp, this will be performed via Pin 1 of the XLR. Note that your choice will not affect the balanced character of the cable.
Using the ground pins of the XLRs to make the ground connection (no external ground) is the most common configuration. However, certain phono preamp manufacturers recommend that the cable shields (Pin1 of the XLRs) should not be connected to the turntable. Instead the ground connection should be made using the external ground lead to the chassis of the phono preamp. If this is the case it will be clearly mentioned in the user manual of your phono preamp.
If you are not sure which choice is more suitable for you please get in touch and we will try to help.
Optional ground connection to the turntable chassis Most tuntables do not require this additional ground connection to their chassis. DIN tonearm cables always incorporate an internal ground connection in the tonearm connector. This option is only suitable for certain turntable models that have their chassis (or sub-chassis) electrically isolated by the tonearm mass (i.e. Linn LP12). In such cases we can supply the cable fitted with a suitable, additional ground lead to enable this connection (typically using an M4 ring terminal).
Angled DIN Pin orientation:
This option is only relevant if you choose to have your cable fitted with an angled tonearm connector. If you use a straight tonearm connector simply leave it to the default option
Not all tonearms have their pins rotated to the same direction. The pin orientation of your tonearm socket and the tonearm connector will determine the direction towards which the cable will exit the tonearm/turntable. By default all of our angled tonearm connectors are configured using “option 1” orientation as shown in the images, which is the most common. The choice depends on how the pins of your tonearm socket are rotated.
Option 1 is the default option for the vast majority of tonearms and tonearm cables.
Option 2 (180deg.) is the second most frequent option. It is typically used on Jelco tonearms but also on some Audioquest, Audiomods, Fidelity Research and Roskan models.
Option 3 is quite rare but it is often used on some SME tonearms when there is the need for the cable to be routed downwards.
Option 4 is the least common and it is typically used on Graham tonearms.
It is always advised to check your tonearm and see how its output pins are rotated so that you can choose the best option according your set up and cable “dressing” preferences.
