Don’t mind Jason. Cables can and do make a difference. Better quality materials, construction and terminations.
However, I always do an ABA (original-new-original) test—revert to the originals and play the same record. Just to be sure.
Strange Cable Experiment
I have an inexpensive UTurn Orbit turntable (Ortofon Blue cartridge). a cheap Cambridge Audio phono preamp on purpose. My main front end is CD's, so my real money has gone there (relatively speaking). Recently, through a unexpected complicated swap out deal, I've connected my phono stuff together with cables which retail for more than the components I've just mentioned. Previously they were linked by some low price Pangea RCAs. (Maybe $50 per pair). Now the interconnect between the turntable is the Mad Scientist Ultra Black ($399)and from the Phono pre the Tellurium Q Black II. ($500) And let me tell you...the leap in quality has been nothing short of mind blowing. This cheap rig seriously competes with my CD set up. No I can't believe my ears either. A very strange experiment indeed. But how? Why? Stupid transparent and vocals are ....scary real. I never would recommend doing this on purpose but the results are bewildering! Opinions?