How will XLR cables vs RCA effect a phono pre

Okay maybe this is just silly or I am!...

First off XLR from the "CARTRIDGE TO PHONO amp" Is almost pointless... All cartrides have 4 pins, and they are naturally already considered a Stereo left right a balanced source..RCA jacks from the Cartridge to your phono will probably in most cases as long as its shielded make little to zero difference, same noise from the cart will enter your phono stage even if it was XLR from my understanding, I mean its passive circuitry nothing is active in your cartridge or arm to those jacks whether being RCA or XLR.

Secondly
XLR from Cartridge to Phono AMP will not GIVE you 6 db more gain, that cartridges is still a passive device and nothing is amplified more at that point... However XLR from the PHONO AMP to the Preamp could up another 6 db as thats the nature of the balanced active circuit.

Anyway I see virtually no reason that on paper the XLR which 99% of turntables do not have will make the passive cartridge sound better... Or quieter.. Now the only advantage to XLR would be having a Phono amp OUTPUT XLR to a Good Fully balanced PREAMP from its active gain circuits... And even then it seems very little can be had in most systems unless you really have the equipment to get that 5% degree of difference or because you have your Turntable VERY far away from your System and have the phono amp hooked up very close to the turntable(good idea) with cables only 2 or 3 feet away and then need to drive an XLR cable 20 feet to your preamp or something, THEN I can see XLR playing a critical part in this configuration, but only on the Phono AMps output, not on the cartridge passively sitting on your arm feeding that tiny signal to your phono amp if that makes sense..

Maybe I am just not seeing any benefit to a XLR input on a phono amp, but I do see it being beneficial in some cases on the output of the phono amp after active circuitry has been applied to the signal.

If not Enlighten me please!

Atmasphere"If the preamp is not balanced then IMO there is only marginal advantage to using a balanced cable. "

I agree.. SO the big question is.... Are we talking about a BALANCED design so to speak which seems to me to be the same on the end of the turntable anyway being its RCA Jacked, or XLR Jacked... Or are we confusing that everyone must Modify their turntable to Wire it VIA XLR?

I mean it kinda seems to me that from the Cartridge to Phono amp there is not really any wiring difference to do here in order to go XLR, and most tables will have to be modified connecting that extra wire, but to what inside the arm? Or simply just shorting pins 1 & 3 to simply interface the input circuit on a "Balanced" phono stage.. Which simply to me would mean you can still have a standard wired RCA style turntable, and just short RCA ground via an XLR adaptor or something to your existing RCA JACK in order to keep everybody from running out and re-wiring (somewhat expensively) their arm and adding XLR jacks to the back of a turntable.

Anyway due to the subject matter I am simply trying to establish a ground point here that its possible you don't need an XLR equipt and wired turntable to acheive the connection at a (Fully balanced) Phono stage.