Dedicated phono cable or quality IC

I think that cable upgrades anywhere in the system can give good benefits. I would say the earlier in the signal chain you can upgrade the cables, the better.

Twl. Thanks for responding again. I think my question got lost in my muddled description. I am a believer in better cables for sure. What I am wondering is if I should be looking at a "phono cable" OR if a decent interconnect is as useful a route. The reason is cost. I can get a good IC easier and for a better deal than a phono cable. I saw a Graham IC-30 phono cable for $350 and for the same price I can get an almost new Acoustic Zen Matrix reference II. I realize the "tiny signal" compared to the cdp but will it make that much of a diffence.

I think that with a high output MC cartridge, you will be ok with a good quality interconnect. Input impedance of 47k ohms on the phono input is quite high, and with a HO cartridge, your signal level is not all that tiny. I'd say just to keep the length of the cable to the minimum required, and you'll be fine.

Thanks Twl.

I am going to point you to the following site:

http://www.high-endaudio.com/RC-IC-Phono.html

I agree with most of what he says.

A quote from the site follows:

"CAVEAT 1: Never assume a line-level cable will work equally well for the phono signal. My current recommendations should be considered an exception to this rule.

CAVEAT 2: Never assume the same phono cable will work equally well when it is going into a (low-impedance-100 ohm) step-up or the actual (high-impedance-47K Ohm) phono stage. These are very different loads.

The results described below are with the cable going from a step-up (transformer) into a phono stage. A cable going from the turntable into the transformer may have different results."

You can spend hours at this site and save yourself from thousand of $ worth of mistakes

Good luck