Is an unbalanced preamp a bad thing?

odd that all of a sudden you think of this.

how does the system sound ?    if it sounds good then leave it and don’t worry about it

+1 @riley804 There might be marginal improvement using balanced connections if both amp and pre are fully balanced, but I don’t think it’s worth pursuing if you like what you’re hearing now. 

some say they hear a difference between the two and how true that is , i don’t know.

is it worth selling the preamp you have and then finding one that is balanced?    the new preamp might not have the same sound so you have to deal with that and also finding cables that sound good also.

i thought (?) the purpose of xlr was for longer runs that rca can’t do ?

i would keep what you have

I am borrowing a Conrad Johnson preamplifier and it sounds very nice but to my surprise I couldn't use XLR cables.  If I wanted this preamplifier I would have to go through all the torture of selecting new cables versus XLR cables I already have.

Fortunately I don't need extended Cable runs and it's supposed to be a really good preamp so maybe I'll buy one.

Also borrowing some very nice speakers called Magico and will listen to these for a while until I have to give them back.  It's nice having friends who have Nice gear.