balanced are they worth it?

2 things that have been mentioned are important: the length needs to be over 2 meters (probably 3) for you to hear a difference. This is true, unless the equipment you are using has a fully balanced topology within it (as Mento refers to). If that is the case, then balanced will almost always sound better. Another issue which has not been mentioned is the environment. If you live in an area with alot of RFI and EMI, balanced will make a substantial improvement by just canceling out the noise that is picked up from these sources. This occurs because the 2 hot leads are out of phase. It of course does not eliminate all of the EMI/RFI noise, but it does reduce it significantly.

What I have done in the past is contacted the manufacturers of the equipment and asked them their opinions.

I recently changed from unbalanced to balanced, 3 months ago, and I've been pleased. I would say overall, the noise floor is definitly lower. The instruments come from a blacker, darker background, if you will. The strange thing I've noticed though, is that I have a harder time telling the difference between cables. For example, the difference between XLO Reference and Signature seems much more pronounced to me unbalanced then in the balanced form. Maybe I'm crazy (my wife won't disagree) but I prefer the balanced form overall. Gotta go , Dickie Betts is jamming, man this sh@t sounds good.

Thanks evryone for your response to answer the question on equpment used it is a proceed hpa3 and a 20 ft run.