Balanced cables

Slaw....I hear the "metallic" sound from all sources.   I tried many mats and insist my bare Classic platter is best for me.

When running mic cables in my distant past, of 100m or more balanced was the way. And transformer balanced , too.
From a low impedance (100 ohms ) would keep the system quiet even after crossing and running alongside hundreds
of power cables.
IC balancing was cheaper but not as effective in industrial use.

In my experience moving to balanced from single ended prodiced a slight increase in articulation, most noticeably in the bass.

Through my many years being in the audio business, and listening to an even greater extent I always return to unbalanced interconnect cables for betters sound. Fortunately my Audio Research amplifiers and line stages have provisions for both so it makes a good test. I've done nearly all of my A/B testing using the same brand XLR vs. unbalnaced (RCA) connectors.

The Cable Company in Ohio has complete charts of those mathematical values from each high end company for their amps and preamps. If you go into a broadcasting-recording supply house and buy inexpensive cable that matches the value numbers of those components you will be blown away at the performance of your gear."

I didn't want to say anything at the time, but this is so wrong in so many ways. TheCableCo. is not in Ohio, not that it matters much, but this falsehood sets the tone for what follows. I can only hazard a guess that the "values" he mentions pertains to output impedance and input impedance but those "values" have nothing to do with matching cables to components. People say all kinds of weird things on the internet and it is best to just smile and ignore. I have just broken from that wisdom.