R_f_sayles, almost all phono cartridges are balanced sources. Many arms are too. The signal is converted from balanced to single-ended usually in the way the RCA cables are connected to the arm. That is why there is that weird grounding wire that other single-ended sources seem to lack.
For this reason you can operate a phono completely balanced, and if you have a balanced preamp and amp, the signal can be balanced from needle to speaker. In our systems, that means a total of 4 stages of gain, so the signal path is actually simpler than many single-ended setups. The cables sound better (its a common myth that you don't need balanced unless you have long cables but the real reason for balanced lines is to eliminated interconnect cable artifacts) and there are blacker backgrounds... IOW there are immediate benefits.
For this reason you can operate a phono completely balanced, and if you have a balanced preamp and amp, the signal can be balanced from needle to speaker. In our systems, that means a total of 4 stages of gain, so the signal path is actually simpler than many single-ended setups. The cables sound better (its a common myth that you don't need balanced unless you have long cables but the real reason for balanced lines is to eliminated interconnect cable artifacts) and there are blacker backgrounds... IOW there are immediate benefits.