I had a similar experience with Mogami XLR balanced cables being really shrill...a first, and not the case with my single ended Mogami Neglex din cable rewire of my Akito arm...that sounds great. I replaced the balanced Mogami with XLR AQ Diamondbacks that are very neutral in my system.
Best budget $300 Balanced IC Recommendation
I have a Cambridge Azure 840C with both Balanced and SE outputs. I have been using Kimber KS1021's with Black Pearl silver and copper stranding. Anyway, I wanted to try the balanced connect and ordered a pro cable for about $20. I could not believe the results! The pro XLR cable sounded almost as good as the Kimber and it's not even broken in! This tells me balanced is the way to go. I'll probably sell the Kimber's to finance the purchase or trade for a balanced IC. Looking for some help and suggestions - thanks!