Entry level balanced cables?

For quite a few manufacturers, the difference in price is actually small -- the difference is in the connector. AQ's mid-line and up cables (the 'triple balanced' jobs) are about $50-75 more per cable with XLR connectors vs. RCA's. The required number of conductors are already running in the cable for balanced operation. Others (like Siltech, I believe) use an interior shield for the third wire when terminating with XLR's. That is, the same cable can be terminated single-ended or balanced. I have sent a pair of AQ Lapis with RCA's, for example, back to AQ to be re-terminated with XLR's.

Yeah, but the Transparent cables are wonderful. If you like themm single ended, you'll love em in balanced.

Regarding Mryan's comments about "converting" your single-ended (RCA) cables to balanced (XLR) cables, please be aware that the option to do this is going to vary by manufacturer. I have single-ended MIT cables and contacted the manufacturer about converting them to XLR. Their response was that they could not do it as the cables are missing a conducter that is needed to go from single-ended to balanced. Apparently, Mryan had better luck in this regard with his AudioQuest cables, and I agree with him that if you like your current cables and "conversion" is an option, I would pursue that first. Good Luck!