Looking for a preamp with XLR connections

I think you should expand your choices by considering a tube preamp.  Specifically, Atmasphere does fully balanced designs and that’s where I’d go first.  Tubes in a preamp are very low maintenance.  But, if you must do solid state I’d look at Ayre, or maybe Boulder.  I’m not 100% sure either is fully balanced, but my guess is they are.  Best of luck.  

Benchmark Media outstanding equipment balanced design thru out including the XLRs.  You are correct in looking for A balanced design, it has many benefits. The comment that was made that balanced doesn’t matter at home Is false. It’s a quieter system period over and unbalanced system. His system just can’t resolve it. Tube sound is a preference not a performance spec. And a CTO to of a big company.

Im an Ayre user as well.   Highly recommended

It’s a quieter system period over and unbalanced system. His system just can’t resolve it. Tube sound is a preference not a performance spec. And a CTO to of a big company.

While balanced and differential circuits are usually superior, it is not universally so. I’ve seen measurements of at least half a dozen products for which the single-ended connections resulted in the same or better performance than the balanced option. Case in point is the Cary SLP-05 preamp (which is fully differential even). 

What matters most is compatibility between the separate components in order to minimize ground loops. Well designed gear does not induce ground loops regardless of circuit and connection type. It also helps to avoid using “boutique” or audiophile brand cables, since many of them have completely ineffective shielding and poor quality terminations. 

 

To the OP,

Be wary of what you read on the ASR forum. It’s quite apparent that many, if not most of them have little experience with high quality/audiophile-grade components. They like to hang their hat on SNR, THD and IMD specs because doing so enables them to be satisfied with cheap products. What’s even worse is that they’re not the least open-minded to the possibility that maybe researchers don’t yet fully understand how some measurement parameters
translate to what we perceive, or that there could be performance variables we’ve yet to learn we can/should measure.

I’ve owned a few of their measurement darlings. Some are good, some are great, and some are completely underwhelming. For example, the Benchmark AHB2. It’s a nice amp but I prefer the inferior measuring Parasound A21 and Pass XA25 amplifiers by a significant margin. OTOH, I have yet to hear a preamp I prefer to Benchmark’s LA4. The Topping D90 was a nice DAC but the higher noise and distortion Denafrips Ares II is better to my ears. At the end of the day, we should only care about which products bring us the greatest musical enjoyment.