Hello,
I have custom made a tonearm which uses aluminium 8mm tubing as the arm and i have a bolt going through to affix the headshell to the arm. It is pretty snug when all 4 tonearm wires are plugged into the cartridge, the L and R channels are shielded, rubber clad cables but the 2 ground cables are not, they are bare wire which do come into contact with the actual tonearm. Since the tonearm is metal and is conductive, will touching it (i.e. to lower it on and off of a record) give me an electric shock as the ground is touching it. Thanks.
I have custom made a tonearm which uses aluminium 8mm tubing as the arm and i have a bolt going through to affix the headshell to the arm. It is pretty snug when all 4 tonearm wires are plugged into the cartridge, the L and R channels are shielded, rubber clad cables but the 2 ground cables are not, they are bare wire which do come into contact with the actual tonearm. Since the tonearm is metal and is conductive, will touching it (i.e. to lower it on and off of a record) give me an electric shock as the ground is touching it. Thanks.
In dry weather you may accumulate static charge in your body, and so yes, you might. Otherwise no problem.
The arm should be grounded, like all touchable metal in any electrical system.
Signal ground cables touching the inside of the arm may cause noise due to triboelectricity, so they should be insulated.
Signal ground cables touching the inside of the arm may cause noise due to triboelectricity, so they should be insulated.
Potential for ground loops amongst other things.. I've achieved the lowest hum levels by grounding the arm tube separately from the two cartridge ground returns which I also keep separate until the pre-amp.
Will you get a shock? No. You wouldn't even get a shock if you touched any of the wires from a cartridge. You are only talking millivolts and the resistance of your finger tip is so high, you wouldn't even notice it.
As far as your construction, you need to have all of your wires insulated. If you want some good light wire, sacrifice a computer mouse cable. Works like a champ.
As far as your construction, you need to have all of your wires insulated. If you want some good light wire, sacrifice a computer mouse cable. Works like a champ.
Thanks for all of the replies. Just to clarify, I need to insulate ALL 4 WIRES and not just the L and R and have the 2 ground cables touching? Because eventually, at the end of the cable the 2 ground cables converge into a single wire.
Yes, insulate all four wires. If possible, loosely twist each pair of signal+return - this may reduce hum pickup. Like all audio grounds, the two ground cables should be joined in one and only one place in the system. The tonearm is not the best place to do this. Phono preamp input is one possibility.
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