RCA Phono Interconnect Under $400

Elliot, Of course you’re entitled to your preferences in all cases. Those cables you got with your reconditioned Mac, are they of the 2-conductor construction, with audio ground separated from shield? If not, you might want to procure some inexpensive 2-conductor cables and compare them to your video cables. Also, for SE connections (RCA), I prefer low mass plugs, like KLE. They’re tight fitting enough that locking them would be superfluous. And they sound best to my ears.

In addition to low capacitance you also want shielding from RFI. Since a shield adds capacitance, it’s not so simple.

Just to point out that the video cables almost certainly do not have separate and equal conductors for audio hot and audio ground. In my experience that makes a difference. In cheap 75 ohm video cables, most likely audio ground is carried on the shield which therefore must be connected at both ends.

An RCA to RCA cable will definitely carry audio ground. If the tonearm or TT need ground to the phono, any old wire will do.

Do you need a cable with a DIN connector at one end and RCAs at the other, or is it RCA to RCA? Do you prefer silver wire or copper? One advisory: you want hot and ground to be carried on equal conductors, separate from the shield which connects to ground only at one end. Many phono cables carry audio ground on the shield. That’s suboptimal.