There is no real difference at one meter.
This statement is incorrect. Balanced operation can be beneficial even if the connection is only 6", since rejection of noise impinged in the cable is not a function of length. If operating balanced, that noise is rejected at the receiving end.
Max Townshend told me that RCA's are the way to go over XLR's because RCA's give "pure sound". That the additional circuitry in XLR's detract from the pure sound..
@vinylshadow
This is a common myth. If it were so, then recordings would all use single-ended connections, which they don't. The Golden Age of Stereo, which began in 1958 with the introduction of the first stereo LPs, was also ushered in by balanced lines, which allowed microphones to be placed correctly without the recording equipment being only a few feet from the performers. So this meant you could record in concert halls and the like without signal degradation before it hit the mic preamps in the tape machines of the time.
What is important to understand is the signal in a balanced line connection isn't push pull any more than it is in a single-ended cable- as long as the setup is compliant with AES48, the balanced line standard. You'll note there really isn't a standard for single-ended cables...
Literally everything in my system except the turntable have balanced connections, and I’d do that, too if I could find a turntable Inlike that was balanced.
@davetheoilguy
Usually all that is required is to change out the tonearm cable. Sometimes, on cheaper stuff, this might require some soldering. But on tonearms that have the 5-pin DIN connection or RCAs with a ground post, its a simple matter of changing the cable so you can run balanced. In the case of the RCA connections, the shield of the cable goes to the ground post and the two RCA connections (center pin and the barrel) are the twisted pair within the shield. At the XLR input of the preamp, the twisted pair are pins 2 and 3 of the XLRs and the shield is pin 1. On no account should the shield of the cable contact the barrel connection of the RCA. This works a treat- you can use Mogami console wire which is low capacitance and this will work as well as any single-ended cable regardless of cost.
I've always seen the need to audition expensive cables as a hidden cost of single-ended preamps. When you run balanced, the cable cost is inconsequential if the equipment (such as the phono cartridge) supports AES48.
