OCC-7N silver-clad copper in a Tri DNA Helix, Composilex 5 insulation, and five DIN and RCA termination options including a balanced XLR version. A tonearm cable carries the smallest signal in your system. A moving-coil cartridge puts out a few tenths of a millivolt — roughly a thousandth of what a CD player delivers — and it has to travel from the arm to the phono stage before anything has amplified it. Whatever the cable picks up along that run gets amplified along with the music, by a factor of several thousand. This is the one cable in a system where the argument for spending money is easiest to make on physics rather than faith. The conductor is OCC-7N silver-clad copper: Ohno Continuous Cast copper at seven-nines purity, with a silver skin over it. The silver matters more than it might sound, because at higher frequencies current concentrates toward the surface of a conductor, so the outer material carries a disproportionate share of it — and silver is the most conductive metal there is. The step up from here is the Micro-Platinum Eclipse 10, which uses solid silver throughout rather than a silver skin on copper. The geometry is Tri DNA Helix: three conductors of thirteen insulated strands each, at 26AWG. Insulation is Composilex 5, Wireworld’s current generation, whose stated purpose is reducing triboelectric noise — the small static charges that build and discharge where a conductor rubs against its insulation. On a cable that hangs off a moving tonearm and gets flexed every time you cue a record, that is a more relevant mechanism than it would be on a static interconnect. Five terminations are offered, which is the most useful thing about this cable practically. Straight DIN to RCA and angled DIN to RCA cover the great majority of tonearms — check which your arm needs, because a straight plug fouling a plinth is a genuinely annoying discovery. Straight and angled DIN to XLR serve balanced phono stages, which is worth doing: a cartridge is a floating differential source by nature and keeping the run balanced rejects common-mode noise that single-ended wiring passes straight through. And there is an RCA-to-RCA version with a ground wire for turntables that terminate in RCA sockets rather than a DIN. Two things Wireworld does not publish for this cable, and both matter more here than they would elsewhere: the shield type, and capacitance per unit length. Capacitance is the one that can actually change how a cartridge sounds — a moving-magnet cartridge is specified for a total load capacitance including the cable, and getting it wrong shifts the high-frequency response audibly. Moving coils are far less sensitive to it. If you are running a moving magnet and your phono stage has selectable capacitance, ask us and we will try to get a figure out of Wireworld before you commit. Features OCC-7N silver-clad copper conductors Tri DNA Helix — 3 conductors, 13 insulated strands each 26AWG COMPOSILEX 5 insulation Five terminations: straight and angled DIN to RCA, straight and angled DIN to XLR, and RCA to RCA with ground wire Silver-clad OFC RCA contacts; silver-clad copper alloy XLR contacts Three lengths: 1.0m, 1.5m and 2.0m Specifications Type: Tonearm / phono cable Position in the range: Fourth of five in Wireworld’s tonearm cable line: Micro-Eclipse 10 below, Micro-Platinum Eclipse 10 above Conductor material: OCC-7N Silver-clad Copper Geometry: Tri DNA Helix — 3 conductors, 13 insulated strands each. Wireworld’s DNA Helix uses flat, ribbon-like conductor strands layered in parallel groups, instead of round strands twisted together as in ordinary cable. Their stated aim is to reduce the eddy-current losses they attribute to conventional stranded and solid conductors. Moving up a generation or a tier generally means more strand groups. Gauge: 26AWG (0.13 sq mm) Insulation: COMPOSILEX 5. Composilex is Wireworld’s composite insulation, and its stated purpose is reducing triboelectric noise — the small static charges that build and discharge where a conductor rubs against its insulation as the cable moves or vibrates. That effect is real and well known in cable design. Wireworld’s specific claim that Composilex 5 beats every other low-loss insulation including Teflon is published without any supporting measurement. Shielding: Not published Terminations offered: Straight DIN to RCA, angled DIN to RCA, straight DIN to XLR, angled DIN to XLR, and RCA to RCA with ground wire Contacts: RCA: silver-clad OFC. XLR: silver-clad copper alloy Ground wire: Included with the RCA-to-RCA termination. Wireworld does not publish how the ground wire itself terminates Lengths: 1.0m, 1.5m and 2.0m Capacitance: Not published. This matters more on a phono cable than elsewhere — a moving-magnet cartridge is specified for a total load capacitance that includes the cable. Ask us if you are running a moving magnet How it differs from the Micro-Platinum Eclipse 10: Conductor material only. This cable uses OCC-7N silver-clad copper; the Micro-Platinum uses OCC-7N solid silver. Gauge, conductor count, geometry, insulation, terminations, contacts and lengths are identical between the two Electrical figures: None published. Wireworld does not publish capacitance, inductance or resistance per unit length for this cable, or for any cable in the range as far as we could find. Their claims about noise and resolution are assertions rather than measurements — no test method, no figures, no independent results are given. The one objectively checkable technical claim behind the range is the DNA Helix patents, US 8,569,627 and US 9,620,262, and a patent establishes novelty rather than performance. We would rather tell you that than quote marketing copy at you as though it had been measured. Country of manufacture: Not published. Wireworld is headquartered in Davie, Florida, but we could find no Made in USA claim for the cables themselves anywhere on their site — the only manufacturing statement we found concerns packaging, which they say is printed in the US. A head office is not a factory and we are not going to present it as one. Warranty: Wireworld publishes a Limited Lifetime Warranty against manufacturing defects to the original purchaser, with damage from abuse or wear excluded. That is essentially the whole published policy — there is no itemised exclusions list, no claims procedure and no statement about transferability, though the phrase “to the original purchaser” implies it does not transfer. Proof of purchase from an authorised dealer is required, and Wireworld asks you to go through that dealer first. The ’In Groove is an authorised Wireworld dealer.
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