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

A lot of the higher end phono cables use the same cable construction as their analogue cables with the exception of an external grounding wire and phono DIN connector (if applicable).

If your table has rca outputs, just give your cable a try and make up a grounding wire.

Thanks for your comment Brf: With type of metal makes a good grounding wire? copper? or does it matter at all?

Dedicated phono cables, besides having a separate chassis ground, are usually much lower capacitance than line level cables. The XLO site shows a distinctly different cable for their phono. My guess is that there is less wire (higher gauge) to keep the capacitance down.

None the less, it does not hurt to try it. You may have to change the capacitance setting though.

I would add to the previous comments that I'm not sure if the Signature 2's are shielded. Judging by the photos and description provided at the XLO site for the Signature 3's I don't think the Signature 3's are shielded, which prompts me to raise that point. Lack of shielding could result in noise issues in a phono cable application that would not occur in a line-level application. There's no harm in giving them a try, though.

Optimizing capacitance is particularly important if the cartridge is a moving magnet type, for which manufacturers usually specify a recommended range of total load capacitance ("total" being the total of the capacitances of the cable, the wiring in the turntable and tonearm, and the input capacitance of the phono stage). For low output moving coil cartridges it is less of an issue, but preferably should be kept as low as possible.

Ordinary copper should be fine for the grounding wire.

Regards,
-- Al