I wouldn't let audiophile neurosis get you on this point. If any manufacturer actually makes an RCA-RCA "phono" cable which is really different from their regular RCA cables, I'd be very surprised. The manufacturers I have spoken to over the years (Cardas, Purist, NBS in particular) never suggested to me that their phono cables are any different from their regular cables, and Sumiko, the importer of my SME turntable and arm, certainly has never suggested that there was a distinction. They all simply indicated that the phono cables differed from the regular cables because of the DIN connector required for most arms. I tried a Purist Proteus DIN-RCA cable in an AB comparison against the same cable in RCA only format with a Cardas DIN-RCA adaptor, and did the same with two Cardas Golden Reference cables, one DIN-RCA and one RCA-RCA, and couldn't hear any difference. Since then I've used the adaptor to gain more flexibility in choices, and certainly have heard no loss in my system.
