I ran into this issue with my Bryston SP 1.7. It has balanced and RCA. I use Pro Audio gear and it is all balanced. But even though the Sp 1.7 has balanced out puts the analog path is unbalanced. To use balanced the Bryston breaks off the unbalanced path / to make it balanced. I would check the equipment. If the analog path is unbalanced and you do not have very long runs..... unbalanced is the way to go. Puting things in the signal path is really not "the best" suggestion .... my opinion. Cables...speaker wire..ect...and other things to "alter sound" is a lot of times not the cure. The BEST/first thing to do if you run high end gear is to have dedicated 20 amp circuts put in. ( I run 2 ) When picking speakers.....find out what the maker uses ( plus any other suggestions they may have ) I run powered near field monitors in my studio. I guess in short... the issue of balanced and not may not be the solution to get the best sound. I use Pro Power Company products by Richard Grey. For me it seems to work as claimed. I am no expert...... so take any of this based on that. I know it..... when I hear it..... I trust my ears and not specs of equipment.
Balanced to unbalanced?
Am in process of setting up my system and have run into this interconnect issue : My active crossover is not balanced, so no XLR in or out. Source is SCD-1 which I'm sending to get VSEI upgrades, so I can get truly balanced if needed, if it is worthwhile. Pre is Supratek Sauvignon (balanced). Since I can't use balanced downstream of the crossover, would it still be advantageous to use balanced upstream ? -between the SCD-1 and pre?