Replacing the ProJect 8.6 tonearm cable

Another newbie question. I have serious doubts the factory fitted
cables that come connected to the Project turntable are any good.

For starters if I play a couple of reference tracks on my Rotel CD
player fitted with some mid-range Taralabs cables and repeat the same
on my turntable I notice a significant loss in detail. I am using the

Odd. Detail usually relates to resolution, and resolution relates to dynamic
range. CD players as a rule have tremendiously higher resolution than vinyl.

Perhaps you are using some other definition for "resolution" such as
"peaked-up treble response".

Apart from the twaddle in magazines, what makes you think the cable is
responsible for the "significant loss in detail"?

i.e.

How have you established that the LP and CD sound indistinguishable if
played on some other system(s)? My experience is that there are often
easily-measureable differences between an LP and CD of (nominally) the same
recording. Otherwise this may be the reason.

How have you estabilshed that the cause isn't, say, the cartridge, or the
RIAA preamp, or the arm...?

If the cartridge is a 'moving magnet' type then the cable capacitance may
be having an effect. Alternatively, if the cable is poor it may be allowing
some hum to manifest. Otherwise, it isn't clear what the cable would be
doing that a replacement would affect to cause what you describe.

same Taralab cables from my NAD PP2 phonostage to the preamp. I have a
strong feeling its the cables on my turntable. Unless the NAD PP2 is
the one causing the loss in details :-(

Has anyone on here noticed a similar problem? I also want to know if
these cables could be upgraded? If so any recommendations?

I seriously doubt that the cables are in any way at fault. It is no surprise
that that the CD player sounds better, as it *is*better in every meaningful
way. However, there are things that need to be checked.

1) What cartridge are you using, and what capacitance load does it want to
see? Then check if the parallel capacitance of the cables and your NAD phono
stage provide the necessary capacitance. In general, however, I would expect
that neither the cables nor the phono stage would be grossly out unless you
are using a cartridge that is particularly sensitive to capacitive load
(like A Shure V15III for example)

2) The RIAA equalisation of your NAD stage could be at fault, but I recall
seeing a review of it some time ago where it was stated that the RIAA
accuracy is good, so unless there is a fault, I would expect this to be OK.
Try another phono stage if you can.

Maybe you could save yourself a ton of grief - simply drop vinyl and go with

I think we first need to get an understanding of how he defineds
"resolution". Given that TTs can't have the same smooth response as a good
CD player, perhaps he's defined "resolution" as "peaky response".

Perceived detail is perceived detail, no matter how it's delivered - the
trouble with CD/digital generally is its comparatively collapsed/2D imaging
which 'buries' detail (IME) no matter what the 'resolution' is claimed to be
and it really needs accompanying video to help 'unpack' it......

Is that the conventional wisdom in your world? :-)

the CDs...??