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I have a turntable on an end table. The phono pre-amp/headphone amp is on the nearby desk. I had to extend the rca's (six foot cable, 9 feet total) and ground to make it work. There aren't any obvious issues.

Someone discussing on another forum else was inquiring about a 40 feet run.

What distance is too much?

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I reject your music, and substitute my own.

It depends on the capacitance of the cable and the recommended capacitive loading of the cartridge for flat response. Too much capacitance will roll off the highs and/or cause peaking in upper frequencies.

If your cable has a capacitance of 50pF/ft (for example), then a 9 foot cable will result in a total cable capacitance of 450pF. Add around 100pf at the phonostage input for a total of 550pF. Cartridges such as the AT-VM95 series recommend a capacitive loading of 100-200pF for flat response, which would normally mean using short, low capacitance cables with no capacitive loading in the preamp. Moving magnet cartridges normally have a resonance peak at or just above the audible range (around 15-20kHz) above which response falls off like a cliff. Capacitive loading exceeding the recommended loading moves this resonance peak to a lower frequency where it is more audible, sometimes increasing the magnitude of the peak, which makes the top end sound elevated, though you will also have lower extreme high frequency response since it falls off quickly beyond this peak. Basically, the cartridge significantly departs from flat response, and the sound tends to be fatiguing to listen to.

Audio Technica cartridges (I seem to remember you picked up one at Crutchfield a while back) tend to have lower recommended capacitive loading compare with other MM cartridges. To get the best out of them, you need to use short, low capacitance cables and may need to remove any capacitive loading in the preamp. If you use very low capacitance cables (say 15 to 20pF/ft), then you may be just fine with a 9Ft run between the turntable and preamp, particularly if you remove any input capacitance. It would be on the high side but still within the recommended loading of the cartridge.

Now to answer your basic question, yes, it will still work without low capacitance cables at the length you are using, it will not break anything, it just may not sound as good as with shorter or lower capacitance cables. Generally, using RCA extenders with low level signals is a bad idea, there may be some signal degradation or additional noise with the extra connection if the contact is not good. Line level signals are not as much of a problem with extenders. Better to use a single 10ft cable rather than patching together a 3ft + 6ft extender.

I hope this helps.

David

3 foot (general estimated length of the average turntable) is the built-in turntable leads. It's not a separate 3 foot cable plus a 6 foot cable.

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I reject your music, and substitute my own.

Steve,

Then what you want to use is the lowest capacitance cable you can find for the 6ft extension, since the leads on the turntable are probably just OK and probably close to 100pF by themselves. Something like a Blue Jeans Cable LC-1, and see if they can put a female RCA on one end. These have very low capacitance (12.5pF/ft). What you have will work for now, but the cartridge (and your ears) will be happier with the lower capacitance cables.

David

Another option would be to use a "local" phono stage at the end of the 3' cables. Then extend to the line stage or integrated amp via a line-level RCA connection.

Phono stages can be as cheap as $15 (a decent cable will cost more than that). Of course, the sky is the limit at the upper end.

https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Au ... UYQAvD_BwE

https://www.parts-express.com/Rolls-VP2 ... mQQAvD_BwE

https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/acce ... no-preamps

Hope this helps with another potential option.

Stuart