How to Improve Gain for RCA on Preamp. Can it be done?


I own a Schiit Freya+ which I use as a preamp to my active speakers.  I use the balanced XLR from my Freya+ to my actives (which have balanced XLR).

 The Freya+ has XLR inputs and RCA inputs but I have noticed a large difference in gain between the two. Specifically, I have looked at the following two scenarios:

A) source > balanced XLR in Freya+ > balanced XLR out > actives
B) source > RCA in Freya+ > balanced XLR out > actives

I observe a large difference in gain between (A) and (B) even when using the tube stage of the Freya+ (I almost always use the tube stage as it sounds the best and gives best gain).

For source, I have used my ADI-2 DAC FS which has both XLR and RCA out.  

The problem comes with my TT.  When I connect the phono stage by RCA to the Freya+, I have to turn the Freya+ all the way nearly to the limit to get satisfactory dB.  But directly connecting my phono stage to the actives (which also support RCA) gives excellent dB. 

The problem is I am purchasing new actives (Genelec 8351B) which support XLR but not RCA.  Therefore, my question is as follows:

Is there a way to improve gain on a preamp using RCA?  Is this problem that I am experiencing specific to the Freya+ or is this a general loss of gain (I am guessing 15 dB) that always accompanies RCA.  Are there preamps that would mitigate this?  I am willing to buy another preamp if so.   Let's say 3K for a new preamp as a round number.

hemtt3345

Another plagiarising millercarbon cut n paste post goes wrong 

@tsushima1 

There are several ways to interpret your comment; just so you know, Atma-Sphere built the first balanced line preamps offered to home audio back in 1989. We got a patent on the technique we used since we didn't use an output transformer and the preamp was all-tube. At the time it didn't occur to not support the standard; as others entered the field we were dismayed to see that very few supported the standard- to this day.