balanced vs. unbalanced sound quality

My personal preference is balanced over rca. I've had amps that had hum with rca connections and once I switched to XLR, the hum was gone. People will tell you that there is no difference, but if you read the manuals of high end amps you will find instructions like the following:

The KSA has balanced and single-ended inputs ’. The balanced inputs use 3- pin XLRconnectors and the single-ended inputs use standard RCAconnec-
tors. Werecommenduse of balanced interconnects sonically, and electrically
because of their ability to reduce noise and not incur significant sonic loss due to extreme cable lengths.

There you have it. Good luck.

QUOTE, "Reduce NOISE, and NOT INCUR significant sginal loss, due to EXREME cable lengths." THERE you have it! That's exactly why balanced cables were developed, for professional use. The environment DICTATED it. Many power lines/transformers(RFI/EMI) and long cable runs inhabiting the same venue. If you don'r have a lot of cables in the immediate vicinity of your interconnects, you won't have a lot of noise. 1 Meter IS NOT an extreme cable length. If your preamp and amp are not both differentially balanced; your presentation may actually suffer. The only way to know for certain, is to experiment.

I just tried the balanced inputs on my pre and amp and noticed a big increase in overall quailty. I agree with Aaronmadler, both of the makers of my gear recommended the balance inputs and in my case they are right . By all means try it!

Balanced

It depends on which preamp you are using. Does your preamp have XLR outputs? Or are you trying to use a RCA-XLR adaptor with a balanced cable?

One thing I would like to make you aware of. If by "higher end" you mean higher price, it doesn't automatically translate into better sound, it only means higher price.