Balanced or single ended phono cable to Aesthetix Io?

It is a simple matter to install a balanced cable on an SME5; you just plug it in.

Rewiring the arm with no connectors at all sounds like a tricky job, but its a fact that eliminating connectors will help.

BTW that is how the Triplanar is wired.

Since the Io has a single-ended input, using a balanced interconnect will still result in a single-ended connection.

The benefit of a balanced connection is that the interconnect cable will cease to have an influence on the sound of the system. It seems to me that the phono input is the best place for this sort of immunity.

Balanced (XLR) cables are significantly better where the cable is longer than 30+ feet. However, there is an opinion that the balanced circuitry that processes the balanced signal can vary greatly from one component to another so you can never be certain of whether the signal is not being coloured by that circuitry.

Single ended is much better suited to shorter runs and with the right cable architecture/geometry can out perform XLR and there is no processing of the signal - other than amplification

I'm not shooting- but I am correcting. Balanced operation offers advantages even in short runs. You know how with a single-ended cable you have to audition it to make sure it works in your system? If the balanced line is set up according to the balanced standard (which is very easy with phono, since its a balanced source to begin with) then the interconnect cable will not impose an artifact. I've seen audiophiles spend upwards of $2000 on a 1 meter cable, while you can get a $200 balanced cable of the same length to sound better.

Balanced operation is only amplification- there is no further processing of the signal.  You are actually doing more processing of the signal when you go single-ended, as you are taking a balanced source (the phono cartridge) and then converting its output to single-ended. Why not just run it balanced all the way? Its cheaper as far as the interconnect is concerned and it sounds better.

I think the quality of the cable plays a role, though, even in balanced mode.

What plays a much larger role in the sound of the cable is how its constructed (as opposed to quality), which is to say that if done correctly it will be a twisted pair within a shield.

Beyond that, the shield is ignored both at the input and output of the cable. If this is not the case, then the construction of the cable will become audible. This is why the balanced standard specifies that the shield connection is for shielding only and not signal return.

This fact if often ignored in both high end audio and also in some studio gear! It is also why there are high end uber expensive balanced cables now.