Why so focused on balanced? I own a $ 16 000 pre amp and nothing is balanced on that, all RCA. I have heard it next to the BP26 and the difference in sound was mindblowing. It now drives a 4B SST2 and I wish I had the money to drive 2 x 7B SST2 or a 14B SST2. But it shows what the 4B SST2 is capable of, much better than the BP26 can do.
Don't forget that your cables also can make or break a set... I use Nordost Red Dawn throughout my set, I came from Siltech, which turned out not to work with my stuff.
Step away from technical details and let your ears do the talking.
I have learned long time ago that measurements and “technical details” are indicative of performance, subjectively and objectively, so I stick to balanced whenever possible, if I am to consider a new piece of gear it will have to have balanced inputs and outputs.
Doing otherwise would be contrary to logic, my perception and my experience.
I share this perception and experience with many others and it is absolutely clear to us that balanced operation is superior. The “ears talk” did indeed bring us to such conclusion.
Through such approach I have also learned that with balanced operations interconnects have far less influence and that competently designed balanced interconnects constructed from quality parts, and of electrical properties appropriate for given application are all that is needed. The emphasis is on competently designed of course. Consequently I no longer subscribe to the approach of sound tweaking through cabling of any kind, as it turned out to be beyond any doubt fundamentally wrong way of trying to improve performance of the system and make it more truthful to the recording and ultimately the live unamplified sound. Incidentally I did have Nordost Red Dawn in my system long time ago when some of the components were single ended.
