I would experiment with sending the signal from the phono stage to the preamp with a good balanced XLR cable set and see how or if it sounds different compared to RCA. If there is an advantage I would hope it is audible. In my setup I have RCA in from the TT to the phono stage and then I run XLR from the stage to the preamp due to the long run, over 30 feet. It sounds amazing.
