Using XLR to Rca adapter

It's highly doubtful... but will sound no worse.

I have (2) sets of the Cardas XLR to RCA adapters running into my ARC preamp that have phono stages at the other end and I hear NO noise or any other anomolies. I ran out of RCA inputs, so I had to use the balanced inputs. My phono stages are RCA out only, so this works VERY well for me. I agree with Blindjim.

Ridding yourself of as many adapters as possible is a good thing.

2nd Stringreen.If the signal is not balanced to begin with.

It may depend on whether your preamp sounds better going through balanced or unbalanced, if the preamp is fully balanced it may sound better through balanced input. I've not noticed any deterioration of signal going through Cardas XLR to RCA adaptors, still think less adaptors the better.