Hi, Bigwaves. You've already been alerted to the existence of much prior discussion on this subject which can found in the archives. To cut to the chase, however, the advantage offered by balanced interconnects is noise reduction, and slightly higher gain. This, however, is largely irrelevant in the average home audio setup. If all of your interconnects are less than 2 meters, it's unlikely that you will hear any discernable difference between balanced and unbalanced inputs (assuming both cables are of good quality). Balanced connections were developed mainly for use with long cable runs, such as may be found in recording studios, or the occasional home where someone has their equipment some distance from the speakers.
One other "advantage" of the balanced interconnect -- and this is brand specific -- is the use of shielded, low-noise microphone wiring. Of course, there are many unbalanced interconnects that offer similar construction, so you can still gain these "advantages" from some unbalanced cables.
Don't spend hours fretting over this technical issue -- it's one of the more irrelevant ones for the vast majority of home audio buffs.
