Phono Cable With "Shunt"

Hi,

Is anyone familiar with this concept? Here is a phono cable. I thought the thin wire was a ground, but it's actually a shunt. It's supposed to help with RF noise, I think. It says this:

"Shunts are attached to floating shields. The Shunts attach to the ground post of your phono preamp. PLEASE NOTE: The shield shunt does not provide a ground connection."



I've never seen this on any other cable. Have you? Thanks!

 

It's just a way to provide a shield return without connecting it to the signal return. Without connecting it to the phono preamp ground lug, the shield would be floating. In this case, obviously they are using Mogami 2534 star quad cables, hence the name.

At least that is my interpretation. Some cables bring out the shield at both ends to provide extra flexibility in connections. I do something similar on my DH Labs phono cable to SUT, but it is 5-pin DIN connector at turntable end, so serves as the ground connection too, the shield is isolated from the two signal lines ...

 

Thank you for the help!

Do you have any insight as to why this isn't a more common feature?

 

Well, it is somewhat common on high end cables, but it's cumbersome, as I mentioned some bring it out on both ends, and most RCA cables are made with coax, so the shield is also the return side of the signal so there is no need for a breakout. When using shielded twisted pair wiring (or star-quad as in this case), there are a few options as to how the shield is handled, we were just talking about it in another thread here ... Mogami RCA Cable Recommendations

 

Yeah, I did this on a rewire on my Rega. Worked great.

 

I will check out that thread! Thanks again for the help!

 

For the life of me, I don't know why balanced phono connection hasn't become the standard. Phono cartridges are by their nature balanced. I bought a ProJect Phono Box RS2 which has balanced phono inputs and it is dead quiet at anything but insane levels. But balanced phono inputs remains a rare feature. Why?

 

It is starting to catch on, some of the newer turntables are coming with XLR connectors on the back for balanced output, Thorens, Teac, and a few others, and tonearms with DIN connectors can already be used balanced with the right cable, you just need the inputs on the phono preamp, as you say. Some of the SUTs are coming with balanced inputs too, so that makes it easy when using LOMC carts.