The Best Phono cable

...the phono cables from Purist are constructed using substantial (thick) mechanical vibration shielding as well as the customary electrical shielding. When cable designers include this feature, background and/or noise floor seem to get blacker and detail comes forward

Maybe yes, maybe no. It has absolutely nothing to do with Quality. Cheap foam inside makes it thick but has no influence for sound quality. Purist has thick cables and very simple thin leads inside :-)

Good phoncables should show some Physical knowledge and low capacity. Most don't have a dedicated "Phono" Cable, they re-brand a normal NF Cable, double the price and that's it.

Syntax - you take a rather dim view of high end cable makers' integrity it seems ;-) not that one shouldn't be cautious, of course -- however, due diligence can clear up a lot of assumptions.

Actually, Purist uses a paste called Ferox, made with powdered iron oxide, to fill the jackets surrounding their gold/silver alloy (not plated!) conductors. Why did you assume it was 'cheap foam'? ;-) Ferox is quite heavy, but flexible. Purist has in the past used fluid-filled jackets as well, and now have sort of combined the two in a material called Contego. In any case this design very much contributes to a really clean music signal. If you ask people who own Purist products, the first thing they'll tell you is how quiet they are.

I'm not sure what materials Silver Audio uses but its a similar design, i.e. mechanical isolation + electrical shielding combined into a homogeneous substance.

Dear Nsgarch,
don't worry, there are good Designs out there and better ones. It has nothing to do with 1 company. One of my friends opened some PAD cables some time ago (and others)...I did a Phono Cable comparison some time ago and there are big differences among them, independent from price (when I remember I had here Siltech, Kondo, Cardas Golden Cross (?), KSL-Vz, Graham-70 (?, the best from him), XLO Signature, PAD Venustas, and some other brands I forgot).
Most cables - in general - have own" characters" and are used to compensate or to support something in the main System. That makes it difficult to "recommend" because no one knows what "priorities" are asked.
Some are shielded, some not, some have good connectors, some not, some have developed a separate Phono cable, others say, they did, too, some have high quality strands, some have standard...you will find nearly everything and I agree with you, the PAD Venustas is a VERY quiet cable.

In the $200=300 range, the Oyaide PA-2075 is very good.

Syntax, although you have stated some obvious truths, I'm not sure the point you are making? With over nine (I lost count) different cartridges in your system, you should find it easy to fit one of them to some cable or other ;-))

My personal quest for phono cables started when I discovered that my SME-supplied van den Hul silver cable sounded like crap (and with a vdH cartridge no less!) and when I started saying so to other audiophiles, I discovered that everyone else thought so too!
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