balanced vs. unbalanced sound quality

Coming back to this old thread where I once posted, with specific answers to the Parasound A21 amp. Here it is:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1264134945&openfrom&23&4#23

Im not afraid to say it. That Audiofeil guy can be compared to two things: a broken record and summers eve. "Cable selection/performance..." ahh shut up. Xlr's took away a hum coming from my speakers, and lowered my noise floor, but I'm sure it could be dependent on whether you can hear or not.

B_limo,
Good to know you got the XLRs. Did you compare before/after with the RCA? Did you get the bass back?

Hey Milpai! I actually just bought a cheap pair from, ahem, best buy, and i did get more bass, lower noise floor and no hum! I'll be ordering the cables you suggested once funds are available. On a side note, I was talking to a guy from gik yesterday and he suggested I move my speakers back a foot or two and move pull my listening chair 3 to 4 feet from the back wall... Anyhow, when I feel like moving them, I may do so and see what happens.

My experience is this. If your system is fully balanced from source to speaker terminal, as is mine, you'll probably get better sound using balanced interconnects. I tried some inexpensive XLR interconnects on a lark, just to hear what balanced might sound like. The improvement over my expensive single ended interconnects was immediate and material.

It is system dependent. But in a system where all the components are fully balanced, balanced is the way to go.