@holmz I think we’re all right. Let me explain. I set up the balanced cables out of my preamp (Schiit Freya +) and ran them to the Emotiva XLR to RCA converters to another short RCA interconnect to Belles Aria Monoblocks and, eureka, no hum,no noise, just music. Then, about a week ago, I swapped out the amps for my McCormack DNA-1 with same cable setup. Not good. Audible hum coming from the speakers as soon as I turned on the amp. Tried the same test with a Schiit Vidar amp and same result — audible hum. I then swapped out the balanced cable with adapter connector for a long RCA with an RCA-RCA connector to the original short RCA cable and no hum. Just silence and just music.
I don’t know what the Belles does that made it work with the XLR-RCA setup but I’m convinced now that I need to go with just a longer quality unbalanced RCA between preamp and amp. (Or get a fully balanced amp.). Going to hold off on that for a while to play with some new to me speakers — Vandersteen 3A Sigs.