More on XLR vs RCA considerations?

Thanks for the replies

None of my wire runs exceed 4 feet and most are 2 feet or less. Some could be done with a foot, just don't have any IC's that are that short. I may have some made. I've been using some DIY stuff made from "Beldon wire and Neutrik connections. Seems fine to me.

Talking about everything being balanced. What can be balanced besides my preamp and amplifiers? I don't think I've ever had or seen any XLR's anywhere else. Is this what is meant by "all balanced", just the preamp and amps?

Thanks

Is this what is meant by "all balanced", just the preamp and amps?

Plus sources (output side) - that’s pretty much the bulk of it. This can be extended to phono stages, tape pre-preamps, headphone amplifiers, tonearm cables, and step-up transformers. What else is there :)

"Doubling up" the circuitry inside pretty much always doubles the expense. 

Nothing that I have, has XLR connections except for the preamp that I just bought and my amps. I run my speakers bi-amped. The Calypso pre has XLR connections and RCA's at every input and output and includes 2 outs for my amps. It seems the perfect set up for me. I have seen some ARC's that have this same arrangement, which seems nice to me. I just don't have anything else that has XLR's. My VPI TT has a nice MIT 330 cable, DIN to RCA. My SUT, which I don't always use, has RCA's only as does my Cary Phono preamp as does my Denon CD player. I don't stream and I don't have any other devices. Would using XLR from preamp to amps be defeated by the fact that I have nothing else that is XLR or would connecting my amps by XLR make for an improvement anyway?

@billpete

So I had an ARC preamp like that (Reference 6) and in fact used it with its RCA inputs (from a phono stage with only RCA outs) and XLR outputs to my amps - and though that sounded best (compared to RCA outputs). Try it both ways, but my "guess" would be that XLR between preamp to amp is likely to sound best. You’ll usually also get +6dB extra gain this way, so make sure to adjust volume accordingly.

I also have VAC Master and Rogue Hera preamps with this arrangement too - RCA & XLR ins & outs. The Rogue and ARC are doing something to the RCA inputs so that it's a balanced signal before it hits the doubled (balanced) circuitry. I think the Master might actually be a SE circuit with full transformer-based I/O to facilitate the flexible I/O.

mulveling

... "Doubling up" the circuitry inside pretty much always doubles the expense ...

It's a misnomer that balanced circuits "double up" the circuitry. Balanced components such as the OP's Aesthetix Calypso use differential circuitry (probably operational amplifiers) to get the balanced outputs. That is a very common approach in high end audio.