Can good IC's be used instead of dedicated phono's

If you use a separate ground wire for your phono interconnect, be sure to try different types of wire for the ground. I recently discovered by accident that the type of ground wire made a significant difference sonically. In my case, the ground wire runs from my SUT box to the phono preamp. All it does at the SUT box end is ground the aluminum chassis in which the transformers are mounted. It is not electrically connected to the transformers or any other part of the audio signal path, yet it makes a major difference. Go figure.

I agree it doesn't make logical sense (at least anything that makes sense to me). That's why I mentioned it. I didn't notice any correlation between wire gauge and sound qualities. I tried about a half-dozen wires including solid silver, solid copper, and stranded copper before settling on some DH Labs 12 gauge silver-plated stranded copper. Of the ones I tried, this had the most neutral tonal balance with good dynamics and detail.

The wires were all about the same length---3 feet or so---and were all positioned about the same. The preamps are all on wood shelves and tables, not near any metal surfaces other than the equipment itself.

The ground wires didn't go near any power cords because I use an outboard power supply located on another shelf.

You could be right about picking up RFI but I don't hear any noise problems. In fact, my phono setup with SUT feeding a tube phono preamp is the quietest I've ever had.