XLR is for balanced inputs where there are effectively 2 alternating signal lines and a ground and RCA connections have one signal line and one ground so if you have a device that has RCA outputs it's pointless plugging it into a balanced XLR input unless you have to becasue that's the only input choice you have. If you do have to it's easy to buy phono RCA to XLR cables or even make them yourself.
The biggest issue you are going to have is the distance you are running so good quality cables are the only requirement here.
I'm of the opinion that any well made cable designed for your application will sound just as good as the high end stuff. I'm sure someone else can comment on XLR connections, I've never tried them. But if you stick with standard RCA, Emotiva makes nice interconnects that are high quality, but very reasonably priced. Blue Jeans Cables are nice too, but in my case they were so stiff and heavy that they were a bit tough to connect with my preamp and position it the way I wanted. Either way, I would definitely want to put more of my money into records or better components rather than spend crazy amounts on cables. Just my two cents.
