Doge 8 Clarity with tube upgrade or Primaluna EVO 300

Tweak1 - sorry to burst your bubble, but if you seriously think that equipment needs to be balanced to be high end, you are seriously mistaken, balanced should really not be needed in home stereo, it was for the studio and concerts.
Think about it, for true balanced, everything has to be double, making equipment more than double expensive. Totally not needed, but it looks good in the leaflet from the manufacturer...
ps. I have myself some balanced equipment in my system 😜

Thanks for the reminder! My phono preamp is a Jolida d9II that has been upgraded and my amp is a rogue 100. So, yes. I am looking for a line stage preamp. My speakers are some older paradigm S8s. Big but pretty, and that makes my wife happy! My other requirement, another concession to the homestead, is I need an HT bypass. That excludes a number of older highly rated line stages.

For the balanced signal guys... the EVO 400 has balanced outputs for another grand, I spent that money already for power conditioning for my whole set-up. I have all balanced stuff in my studio, which is where it is really needed.

gryphon

The fact that you have SOME balanced kit proves your ignorance on the subject. Considering that, most likely your reference balanced kit merely has balanced I/Os, which by no means makes it/them true balanced. But, even if they are, and you mixing them with unbalanced kit, you’ll never know what they bring to your experience

The truth is out there. You just have to look for it
hth

Ignorance is on your part on this topic I am afraid, I have an fully balanced amp, but I did not buy it because it was a balanced amp but because it sound just the same using balanced cabling or rca cabling, please read up on the topic, and try to educate yourself, it is never too late.

Actually single ended is the "purer" path, but if you have long cable runs, balanced is the way to go, even if the gear is not truly balanced, you still get the quiter cabling benefit. That being said, I do prefer using balanced cables if I have a choice due to being more robust connection.