Balanced or single ended leads from your arm.

The Aesthetix Io phono stage has balanced (and RCA) input jacks so I rewired my Walker Proscenium with cryo treated XLR's in place of factory RCA's to take advantage. The result was a nice improvement.

Even if a phono does not offer full balanced input, if the XLR jacks are provided the superior contact area and connection is worthy of consideration.

Personally I prefer the Swiss XLR's constructed with gold over copper pins and finished in black. The brand is Neutrik (same as provided on the Io and Callisto).

What you prefer Swiss cables over the Purist? Blasphemy!:-)

Hi, I really can't add any more input to the above posters other than I have had very similar experiences. My BAT VKP10SE Superpak has both RCA and XLR inputs. The XLR's yield a little more gain, lower noise floor. The result is that the imaging and detail is better. It's pretty noticable, not small imo.

Good luck...

Ken,
My experience has been that RFI can be significantly reduced by going with balanced cables from the table to the phono stage. In my case, 1000ft. from a large radio tower, RFI is a significant issue, that led me to abandoning many a single-ended preamp. Balanced cables was the single best way to eliminate my RFI problem.
FWIW, any VPI owners out there, you can buy a balanced junction box for $150 directly from VPI that replaces the box on any JMW arm. Yes, a high price for a little metal box with two output jacks, but well worth it for the sanity it provides.
The Neutriks that Albert mentions are by far the pro audio standard, they're cheap & easy to find.
RFI issues aside, I agree w/the other posters that balanced will provide an overall lower noise floor. Go for it! Cheers,
Spencer

This can be a bit tricky, as a phono cartridge is not a true-balanced source(this would require +/- phases referenced separately to ground, or a total of five pins instead of the four found in a cartridge). My BAT P10 phono stage has both RCA & XLR inputs, and a fully balanced internal design. Nevertheless, BAT recommended using RCA inputs into the phono stage, and let the phono stage derive a balanced signal at the input and process balanced through to the XLR outputs. There is a reduction in signal-to-noise ratio when dividing the output of the cartridge coils for an XLR connection. Also Hovland recommended that I terminate their phono cable RCA rather than XLR. They preferred the sound of low-mass RCA plugs to heavier-mass XLRs. So your results may vary depending upon cable & phono stage designs.