Balanced in phono stages preamp?

I also have a BAT VKP10SE super Pak and have noticed significant improvement utilizing the balanced inputs. Also you can place the phono amp a distance from your pre amp by utilizing the balanced outputs.

My Ayre K-1xe preamp has built-in balanced phono boards, and they are amazingly quiet. (I use a basis Vector M3 that I had AJ terminate with XLRs.) I am very happy with the results!

Depends. Many products convert balanced to single-ended after the input and then process the signal in single-ended mode. Other products are single-ended all the way thru and then have an additional stage at the output that provides a balanced out. In either case, it is unlikely to be advantageous to use the balanced in or out, as compared to the SE inputs and outputs on the same piece of gear. Only a few phono preamps are truly balanced from input to output. AFAIK, these include BAT, Ayre, Aesthetix Io (in spite of what someone wrote below), and Atma-sphere. In my opinion, there ARE some advantages to a balanced circuit in the latter case, noise and distortion cancellation being two of those advantages. Before purchasing a "balanced" input phono preamp, it would be wise to make inquiries as to what is really going on inside the unit. I think a lot of the reason folks are indifferent about the advantages of a balanced circuit is that they have not really heard one properly implemented.

There is an exception to every rule I reckon. I've got a VKP10SE and I like it a lot better with the input connection unbalanced. To the second half of the original question, I think the answer is no. Some great phono stages give you the balanced input option and some do not. A drawback to the balanced input approach is that to convert a two wire device (cartridge) to a three wire device you have to cut the signal in half which creates opportunity for more issues with signal to noise ratio and amplification error (i.e. for a 1.0 mv cart the unbalanced input is 1 mv, the balanced input is 0.5 mv on each leg).

The Essential 3150 from Raul is a fully balanced phono/linestage input to output.