Is there a difference in balanced cables??

quite a bit..

Rex, the cable you describe may be sub-optimal, but it allows the complimentary phases to be passed nevertheless, and therefore we have a truly balanced signal. Such a design simply ties the chassis ground to the signal ground....but this ultimately happens in the system anyway.

what is your system? balanced or not, can have different conclusions for different electronics (even if they offer both in terms of connectivity)...for example Ayre really does want balanced

I just compared 2 different XLR interconnects in my system - Acoustic Zen Silver Ref MkII and Audience AU24. They sound very different.

Can you describe the differences?