Should people with no turntable or reel to reel be considered audiophiles?

Separate question that I haven’t been able to get answered in another discussion about phono stages (not sure why). What is the advantage of a balanced input or output for phono stages? Is that feature only available on very expensive models? Is there a special MC voltage where this feature is helpful?

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I must admit that designers of ultra expensive High-End audio equipment are very slow and probably the last people in audio who came into balanced (XLR) connection, because this is the ONLY TYPE of connectors (inputs,outputs,interconnect) professionals are using for ages. Come to any studio and you will never find any RCA unbalanced cables, ONLY XLR (Balanced) for everything including microphones.

You can run only balanced cables from MC cartridge to the speakers like Zu Audio Druid (they have XLR port too)

More very nice XLR cables from ZU for audiophiles 

While the conventional hi-fi RCA cables must be short (under 1.5m ), the XLR cables can be very long.

chakster
I must admit that designers of ultra expensive High-End audio equipment are very slow and probably the last people in audio who came into balanced (XLR) connection, because this is the ONLY TYPE of connectors (inputs,outputs,interconnect) professionals are using for ages. Come to any studio and you will never find any RCA unbalanced cables, ONLY XLR (Balanced) for everything including microphones.

>>>>>Huh? The pros only use XLR?  For that reason I’m out.

>>>>>Huh? The pros only use XLR? For that reason I’m out.

Please use quote button when you want to quote someone, it will help readers to understand.

You don’t need XLR for your walkman or cassette deck, but try to tell something about RCA to someone on the studio when you need a cable over 5 meters long. Our music recorded with XLR cables only (all studio gear connected with XLR, balanced). 

I think Ralph explained million times the benefit of XLR for LOMC cartridges on this forum, someone could search on the forum.

Thanks so much Chakster. Sounds like it is an issue for long interconnects and Very special situations within the home audio context we discuss. 
There was another discussion about this and the guy had to have balanced ones.

My turntable cable can’t be changed without big time work on the tone arm with a complete wire replacement from cartridge 4pin connector to end of wire rca -I mean balanced plug.

No thanks-I’ll trust Roy Gandy- he knows more than me and has a pretty successful outfit especially known for their tonearms called Rega.

Michelle- MM owners can certainly be audiophiles-they just choose to spend less on a cartridge. 
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this Is one area I think Is of universal Audiophile agreement. In general MCs sound better than MMs, just cost more and you have to worry about the phono stage matching to its voltage output.