Balanced Interconnect Recommendations

I don't recommend balanced. Its not anything wrong with them, I just see them as a poor use of resources. Not cost-effective. You can always in my experience get better results for less money with a good RCA. Which stands to reason. Balanced is a whole lot more complicated. 

For features that simply aren't a factor in home use. Balanced is for professional use and so has a whole bunch of professional features. Long runs. We don't have long runs. Locking. We don't have roadies. We don't need locking. Ground first. This is what causes the awful sound when you connect something without turning it off first. Pro's do this a lot. We don't. 

All these design elements cost money, in order to provide benefits we simply do not need.

Try whatever Synergistic interconnect you can find for your budget. When you hear how deep and wide the stage is, and how big and full bodied the sound, you will see.

If the circuit topology of your components are not fully differentially balanced from input to output then there is zero sonic benefit of using balanced ICs.  In fact you could even make the sound worse in some applications such as taking a balanced signal from a CD and sending through an unbalanced amp which creates unnecessary conversions that may degrade sonics. 

But if you take a balanced signal and connect it to a preamplifier that is truly balanced - it keeps the signal balanced from input to output, then the preamplifier’s balanced output can then be connected with balanced cables to a power amplifier, whose input circuitry is also balanced. In this case using balanced connections has theoretical advantages over unbalanced connections. These include the benefits (in theory) of lower noise and randomization of DAC non-linearity plus balanced connection noise immunity.  Whether you notice the difference varies from system to system and person to person.  

Well said. Beautiful. 

I concur with 3_easy_payments.
The AES balanced standard was made for recording studios. Its' implementation in home stereo has only become available in recent decades. Unfortunately, not all manufacturers design equipment using the balanced standard according to the standard.
One of the benefits of using XLR's with true balanced equipment is that cable design should not make a significant difference in sound quality.
You don't have to take my word. PM Ralph Karsten (atmasphere) and get his take on this.
Bob