You do need a cable that is specific.
The reason is capacitance, something that occurs with any interconnect cable. With a phono cartridge, which has inductance, the capacitance will form an electrical resonance. If its a high output cartridge this might be at or just above the audio passband.
If you don't have a low capacitance cable, the resonance will be in the audio band with that high output cartridge. It will sound peaky and bright. So you need a low capacitance cable, nor more than about 20picofarads per foot. The ground wire is there to prevent buzz from being audible. It is connected to the ground of the arm itself and the chassis of the phono preamp.
The reason is capacitance, something that occurs with any interconnect cable. With a phono cartridge, which has inductance, the capacitance will form an electrical resonance. If its a high output cartridge this might be at or just above the audio passband.
If you don't have a low capacitance cable, the resonance will be in the audio band with that high output cartridge. It will sound peaky and bright. So you need a low capacitance cable, nor more than about 20picofarads per foot. The ground wire is there to prevent buzz from being audible. It is connected to the ground of the arm itself and the chassis of the phono preamp.