Truly Balanced Cheaper Preamplifiers?

I love the Schiit Freya+Blue Jeans XLR
you up and running for under $1200

The volume system is one of the very best anywhere.

Tubes can be instantly bypassed from the remote.
Unbalanced inputs can be balanced.
Changing tubes is easy.
Two sets of RCA outs for subs or recording or broadcasting via Bluesound 

What does balanced get you? Higher signal to noise ratio
Lower nose floor, the ability to run long interconnects, others
Therefore, expensive cables aren’ts as important also.

Lots of components say they are balanced but include an XLR connection for sales.  The real deal is differentially balanced....seperate circuits for the + and -.  They are twice as much to make as single ended.

I’ve been running a Classe Audio Thirty preamp in balanced mode for many years.  Given it was made in the early 90s you should be able to pick one up for a few hundred now.  In addition to balanced out it has one balanced input plus RCA inputs labeled tuner, cd, video, and phono/aux.  The phono/aux input on mine is used as aux as I have no turntable.  Jumpers are included with it so you can switch it back to phono.  I have a Schiit Modius on order so I can take advantage of its balanced input.  While some have described it as mildly dark I have always found the Thirty to be very neutral.  It’s the reason I’ve used it for so long.

Gustard p26