Balanced vs Single ended?

Balanced is supposed to be quieter, but I don't think you will notice any dramatic difference unless your IC run between components is greater than 10ft.

If both pieces were not designed with fully balanced circuitry: It's a waste of time, and you quite possibly will be subjecting your signal to extra, signal-degrading comversions/componentry(ie: differential amplifiers, phase splitters. If your interconnects aren't very long, you shouldn't be troubled by RFI/EMI, which is what balanced cables were created to combat. It can't hurt to compare single-ended and XLR interconnects, but be certain to do so at exactly the same volume levels, and with equal quality cables, so the comparison will be valid.

I concur with the previous comments, but I'll add that a balanced interface is more likely to be beneficial if you are using multiple dedicated ac power runs to your system.

That is often done to minimize noise coupling from digital components into analog components via their ac power inputs, by plugging the digital components into one dedicated line and the analog components into another.

However, it has the downside of possibly resulting in voltage differentials between the chassis of the digital and analog components, which would cause extraneous noise currents to flow in the interconnect shields. Those currents will be seen as signal in the case of a single-ended interface, but will be ignored in a balanced interface unless unusually severe.

The likelihood of that problem arising, even in the case of single-ended interfaces, can be minimized by having the multiple dedicated lines equal in length, and as equal as possible in terms of the total current requirements of what is plugged into them.

Regards,
-- Al