Daveyf, anytime you put current through the shield of the cable, you are subject to the construction issues of that cable. So this is a big issue with single-ended, even if its only 6 inches. In a balanced system (caveat: if the balanced standard is being properly supported...) the shield sees no signal current at all.
FWIW there does not have to be any 'loss potential' caused the additional circuity when going balanced (a common myth is that there is twice as much circuitry, which is not true, especially if the circuit is fully differential). For example, a fully differential circuit can have up to 6 db less noise per stage of gain as opposed to the same topology running single-ended. So in two stages of gain you could have up to 12db less noise! This has real benefits in preamps working with low output moving coil (which is a balanced source BTW), as you might only need two stages of gain for a functional tube phono section! That is **less** stages for the signal to go through than single ended.
In our amps because of this we only have one stage of gain. So you can actually have a simpler signal path than an SET might have.
On top of that, balanced operation in the preamp or amp means that the unit is more impervious to noise that gets into the power supply. So the potential is for lower noise and not from just the cables.
FWIW there does not have to be any 'loss potential' caused the additional circuity when going balanced (a common myth is that there is twice as much circuitry, which is not true, especially if the circuit is fully differential). For example, a fully differential circuit can have up to 6 db less noise per stage of gain as opposed to the same topology running single-ended. So in two stages of gain you could have up to 12db less noise! This has real benefits in preamps working with low output moving coil (which is a balanced source BTW), as you might only need two stages of gain for a functional tube phono section! That is **less** stages for the signal to go through than single ended.
In our amps because of this we only have one stage of gain. So you can actually have a simpler signal path than an SET might have.
On top of that, balanced operation in the preamp or amp means that the unit is more impervious to noise that gets into the power supply. So the potential is for lower noise and not from just the cables.
