Can speaker wire be used to ground a turntable?

I need to extend the relatively short original ground wire on my Dual turntable so that it can reach the ground post on my receiver. I dug up a strand of thin (16- or 18-gauge) speaker wire of suitable length that already has a spade lug at one end and was wondering if there is any compelling reason not to use it. Is simple electric contact sufficient for my purpose or are there more specific requirements, such as some degree of shielding and/or a minimum gauge requirement?

 

Sure, no problem.

 

What mneveux said. ^^^

 

As long you you make a good connection, you can use any type or size wire that you have. A bad connection will cause noise issues.
-Bill

 

Sure, any conductor can.

 

And like Bill said.

 

That was my original thought. Thanks for all the confirmation!

 

Absolutely NOT! You MUST use an audiophile grade ground-connect cable costing about $300. Just KIDDING!

I have a vintage Thorens with a ground cable. Bought it used and it still had a hum. I finally grabbed a 6' length of RCA 16-gauge speaker wire, split it in half, put lugs on each end, grounded it to the preamp and connected it to a screw on the deck under the platter. Problem solved.

 

Believe it or not speaker wire can be used as speaker wire and it sounds just like a ground wire on a turntable. Wait a minute....should we be using a heavier cooler audiophile looking/grade ground wire for our turntable ground wire? Hummmmmm? Don't mess with me tonght.

 

Makes me wonder why no one is marketing an audiophile version. What would cryogenic treated cast amorphous TT ground wire with Cardas terminations do for your vinyl playback?

 

The ground wire does not carry audio signal. Any insulated wire will do.

 

It doesn't have to carry an audio signal.

Do Audiophile AC cords, carry an audio signal?

 

Another doubt concerning speaker wire and turntable ground wire, but now about the metal connector.
I have bought a Technics SL-QX300 turntable, its ground cable came without the metal clip, that little fork. I've noticed that there are a few eBay sellers that offer the fork for turntable, so one can solder it or even crimp it. I've noticed also that many more sellers offer the fork for speaker cables. But apparently nobody says "this one for ground cable works also with speaker cables and vice-versa". So could I buy the speaker fork and then try a DIY crimp on the turntable ground cable? Or the speaker fork and ground cable fork dimensions are different?

 

Wrap the bare wire around the post and crank the nut down in it.

 

The "forks" are commonly referred to as spade connectors. I older days, most amplifiers had screw terminals in the back. People used spade connectors to connect their speaker wire to the amplifier. it is not necessary to solder the connection, a good crimp would be just fine.



Here are a couple of different size spade lugs.

The larger ones on the right are large enough for those multi-way banana plug connectors of modern equipment.

The smaller ones will work better for the vintage equipment. Phono pre-amps are all different, some utilize the smaller grounding lug and some have terminals with posts that are larger in diameter.

These boxes are only three dollars and change and are available at any hardware or home improvement store. Suggest that you go have a look so that you can visually identify what size you may require. If you get one that is too small or too large, you can always go for one size larger of one size smaller.

I use the red ones for the right channel and the blue ones for the left channel.

Here is a rear view of a vintage, 1960's Scott 222C tube stereo integrated amplifier, showing the speaker terminals which were in popular use at the time.

I use the smaller spade lugs for my vintage tube amplifiers and receiver.

 

For a ground lead, the fork/spade connector is used for convenience. Wrapping the wire around the screw binding post is OK, and using the spade is OK. Any crimp or a solder spade is OK so long as it fits the connections. For a ground wire, all that is important is that an electrical circuit/connections are made. The cheapest will be excellent, and spending hundreds of dollars on audiophile speaker spades will be a waste in this context. There is nothing in a ground wire that will affect the quality of your audio sound, unless the wire is not connected and you have a hum.

For speaker leads on good quality equipment, the quality of the connections can have a (subtle) effect on the sound. It's not noticeable on entry-level equipment, and can be noticeable on very high-end systems. That's why spade connectors for speakers can vary greatly in quality and cost.