The devil is in the details here. Manufacturers call XLR inputs "balanced" in their literature, whether or not the circuitry design is truly differentially balanced or not.
If your gear is not differentially balanced, it probably uses an opamp in the input/output stage of the XLR circuit which is almost always detrimental to sound quality, and many times significantly so.
If your gear is differentially balanced, then using XLR cables is advantageous, not only because it cancels incoming noise from upstream, but usually provides +6db of additional gain.
Marantz states "Line level inputs feature unbalanced (RCA) and fully balanced XLR options for maximum connection flexibility." in the literature of the PM-11S3. The use of the word, "fully" should mean that it is differentially balanced. Their literature for the SA-11S3 states, "The sophisticated fully differential analog output stages feature our exclusive HDAM SA2 and HDAM technologies,"
I would recommend using XLR cabling in this case. Whether the sonic differences are significant to you and worth the investment will only be known after some experimentation.
Dave
If your gear is not differentially balanced, it probably uses an opamp in the input/output stage of the XLR circuit which is almost always detrimental to sound quality, and many times significantly so.
If your gear is differentially balanced, then using XLR cables is advantageous, not only because it cancels incoming noise from upstream, but usually provides +6db of additional gain.
Marantz states "Line level inputs feature unbalanced (RCA) and fully balanced XLR options for maximum connection flexibility." in the literature of the PM-11S3. The use of the word, "fully" should mean that it is differentially balanced. Their literature for the SA-11S3 states, "The sophisticated fully differential analog output stages feature our exclusive HDAM SA2 and HDAM technologies,"
I would recommend using XLR cabling in this case. Whether the sonic differences are significant to you and worth the investment will only be known after some experimentation.
Dave