Tellurium Q Ultra Black II Tonearm Cable

The Ultra Black II tonearm cable is part of Tellurium Q‘s Black series of cables, built specifically for the low-level signal coming straight off a cartridge rather than adapted from a line-level interconnect. Every cable is conditioned for 2–3 days on Tellurium Q’s factory rig before it leaves.

Phono signal is the smallest, most easily disturbed signal in a hi-fi system – typically a few millivolts at most, before any gain has been applied – so the cable carrying it needs proper shielding against interference before that gain stage amplifies any noise along with the music. The Ultra Black II tonearm cable is shielded with this specifically in mind.

At the turntable end, it terminates in Tellurium Q’s straight or right-angle 5-pin DIN plug, to suit different arm and plinth clearances. At the amplifier end, you can choose RCA-to-RCA with grounding spades, or DIN-to-RCA in either straight or right-angle form, also with a grounding spade. This differs from the standard Ultra Black II RCA interconnect in one important way: the grounding spade. A 5-pin DIN connector doesn’t reliably carry a clean chassis earth on its own, so running a separate spade to your phono stage or amplifier’s earth terminal is what keeps hum out of a turntable setup, and it’s worth actually connecting rather than leaving loose.