Noise is always an issue in phono reproduction. Anything you can do to reduce it is helpful, as long as those techniques do not introduce other problems.
Balanced operation is on of those techniques that works. You get reduced noise in 2 ways:
1) reduced noise from the cable and its routing
2) reduced noise from the phono section.
Differential gain stages have theoretically 6db less noise than the equivalent circuit operated single-ended, after you have accounted for gain differences. The noise of any phono section is compounded from gain stage to gain stage; so if the phono section is fully differential from input to output the reduced amount of noise can be substantial- perhaps 12 or 18 db in theory.
In fact in practice the actual reduction in noise is less, but only by a db or so if you have good design. This phenomena is so pronounced that in our phono section we are able to get sufficient gain with only 2 gain stages- despite the fact that our EQ is passive. With less gain stages there is less places for things to go wrong.
The fact of the matter is that going balanced, fully balanced, offers a very nice upgrade to phono performance. If the preamp is not balanced then IMO there is only marginal advantage to using a balanced cable.
Balanced operation is on of those techniques that works. You get reduced noise in 2 ways:
1) reduced noise from the cable and its routing
2) reduced noise from the phono section.
Differential gain stages have theoretically 6db less noise than the equivalent circuit operated single-ended, after you have accounted for gain differences. The noise of any phono section is compounded from gain stage to gain stage; so if the phono section is fully differential from input to output the reduced amount of noise can be substantial- perhaps 12 or 18 db in theory.
In fact in practice the actual reduction in noise is less, but only by a db or so if you have good design. This phenomena is so pronounced that in our phono section we are able to get sufficient gain with only 2 gain stages- despite the fact that our EQ is passive. With less gain stages there is less places for things to go wrong.
The fact of the matter is that going balanced, fully balanced, offers a very nice upgrade to phono performance. If the preamp is not balanced then IMO there is only marginal advantage to using a balanced cable.