RCA vs Phono cable


I have a 30+ year old Pioneer PL-560 turntable in perfect working condition (Shure M97XE cartridge/stylus) My Primare preamp has no TT connections so I just bought the Graham Slee Gram Amp2 SE phono stage with a PSU1 (should arrive Thursday). I will need a pair of interconnects to connect the phono stage to the preamp so I bought a used pair of Synergistic Research Level 1 UEF Atmosphere (RCA) 5ft/1.5m Interconnect cables. Then I saw info on "phono cables." Is there a difference? If yes, what? Should I have bought a phono cable instead of an RCA or a shorter RCA ?
mewsickbuff
the combination of DIN on one end (maybe, depends) and shielding (as noted by Chakster) is the answer.  Phono outputs are tiny and therefore pick up noise easily since they are amplified greatly before they go into the regular preamp (line) stage.  Almost anything benefits from a Faraday shield, but its most useful when the signal is tiny.

But this only matters from the tonearm to the phono stage.  Once it leaves the phono stage a MC signal will be ~ 100X bigger ( and therefor 100X less susceptible to noise) and MC that figure is ~ 1000X/ Yes, 1000.

The output of your pho stage is, ideally , no different from that of a tuner, CD player or line stage device of your choice.  Mostly because it is line stage.

You are not buying a phono cable. You are buying a line level cable.

G

How does low capacitance effect sound quality?
OK- this is a bit technical, but the cartridge employs a coil and so has a property of coils called 'inductance'. Interconnect cables have 'capacitance'; when the two are in parallel as in this case, they form a resonant circuit. You really don't want the resonance in the audio band (it can make things unpleasantly bright and contributes to ticks and pops)!

So a low capacitance cable will help to keep the resonance at a frequency outside of the audio band (and the higher the better). The thing is, it really should not be ignored and a lot depends on your phono preamp as to how it is able to manage with the ultrasonic noise that will be present because of this resonance. There are techniques for loading the cartridge at the phono input that can reduce the resonance.

This is a bit trickier with high output MM cartridges like yours (the correct loading will be a resistor/capacitor combination) but even if you don't load the cartridge, the low capacitance cable is important!
many good TTs like my VPI aries use standard rca plugs and any cable will work. Shielding will be the highest concern.