BEST INTERCONNECT FOR $25 EACH?

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@cleeds 

"Almost all components today have a separate ground. If not, you can always run a wire from the chassis to ground."

Agreed. But for those which do not ...

"If you always ground at the source end, it’s easy to maintain star grounding. That helps avoid noise and hum by keeping all grounds at the same potential."

A star ground is important if ground is used as a circuit element, such as a signal return. A shield attached at one end is not part of the circuit, and cannot form a ground loop, or hum. Also, the term 'source tend' seems ambiguous to me - is it the turntable or the preamp?

"The typical pickup arm/phono cartridge assembly has a separate ground wire - it’s a balanced circuit with a separate ground intended to be connected to the preamplifier. Again, that helps maintain star grounding."

As noted, star grounding is unimportant in this case. The rest, I agree with - but vintage gear may vary.

Nice discussing with you Cleeds, helps me to clarify my thinking.

Craig, I'm sure that you will be pleased with the result. My first suggestion was predicated on the possibility that you might be in a radio-rich environment. Since it seems that you are not, unshielded may be a better solution.

If these work out, that is, no obvious radio frequency interference, you should never need to upgrade.

I think we are actually in the middle of a cellular drop zone lol 

Thanks! Worst case I add shielding later but I think I will be alright. 

terry9

A star ground is important if ground is used as a circuit element, such as a signal return. A shield attached at one end is not part of the circuit, and cannot form a ground loop, or hum.

This is completely mistaken - a shield attached at only one end most certainly can either form a ground loop and contribute to hum and noise, or help alleviate hum and noise. That's exactly the purpose of using such a shielded cable, but of course it requires proper orientation of the shield to be effective. Remember that the term "ground loop" is really a bit of a misnomer; we can say a "ground loop" is formed whenever two or more grounds are at different potentials.

Also, the term 'source tend' seems ambiguous to me - is it the turntable or the preamp?

It's the preamplifier. What would be the purpose of running all the grounds through the pickup arm and cartridge?

As noted, star grounding is unimportant in this case.

Your connection scheme may work in your system, but I know for sure it wouldn't work in mine. I can't see any value in using an amplifier - as opposed to the preamplifier - as the common ground connection.