Phono cable advice.

@knollbrent

Best phono cable under $500?

@chakster

The best cable is used cable, because it is already burned-in and cost 50% less than new. Once i paid $600 for $2000 Stereolab Master Reference Phono cable right here on audiogon. This is what i like about used cables (the price). Stereovox, Stereolab and now The Black Cat are all made by Chris Sommovigo. He’s a guy who invented Xhadow RCA and XLR mentioned by Lewm. Now his new connectors called the LoveCraft premium. 

But today i will never spend even $500 for a cable. I really like Zu Audio copper Phono cables, i also like Signal Cable Silver Resolution which i am using with Xhadow RCAs.

My interconnect and speaker cables are Stereovox Colibri and Stereovox Firebird and i’m using them for decades.

In my opinion phono cable itself is about $150, the rest is the cost of the connectors that anyone can choose (Xhadow, WBT, KLE, LoveCraft etc).

In my opinion Xhadow RCA is the best connector in the world for DIYers. It does not require soldering of the signal (there is a screw), only ground.

BTW here is some more info about Master Reference Phono cable from Stereolab, this model is discontinued. I don’t know why some cable manufacturers are making new models every year, probably clever marketing.

Excellent info @lewm  @chakster  

About to set up Luxman with existing cables and give it a listen. Amp is in the shop, table is getting altered to fit the 444. 

The Duelund wire w/their RCAs are a giant killer. If you build them yourself, you'll be in it for $150. If Chris at www.partconnexion builds it, double that. 

The Audiosensibility Impact SE copper cable is an outrageous bargain, and an even more outrageous bargain when the US to Canadian dollar exchange rate is factored in.

Significantly better than the Jelco cable, which I’ve owned, grossly superior to Van den Hul 502, which I also have here (wouldn’t have the heart to sell it to anyone) and currently retails for around $450 U.S. apparently. Also significantly better than a custom cable I had built using Cardas wire, Vampire RCA’s and a Cardas phono DIN.

The AS cable is cryoed (as were my Jelco and Cardas) and it is very worthwhile to pay Steve the nominal fee for burn-in on the cable before purchase.

I have two of them (originally bought one for a second arm and then immediately purchased another one to replace the Jelco) and was pretty shocked at the improvement they made over the Jelco and Cardas cables. The Van den Hul cable IMO is simply an extremely poor cable and value, even though it or a variation of it is the stock cable with the SME arms. (Full disclosure-I have never heard it with an SME arm).

OK, so barring any score on a used cable I’m probably going to go with the AS Impact SE. I’m still wondering about another pair of DH Labs Air Matrix cables. I can get a used pair for the same as the AS Impact SE. I’d just have to add a ground wire. Is it just a bad choice for a phono cable? Low end (pricewise) is the Zu Audio Mission which I can pickup on eBay for $50ish max.

Thanks again for all the great input.