harpo75
What really matters is if the audio equipment has a “true balanced” design. Meaning that there is identical circuits for the positive and negative signals. This means twice the parts and cost pretty much. Twice as many tubes or transistors ...
That’s not really true. A truly balanced amplifier commonly uses discrete op-amps in a differential configuration, so it doesn’t have twice the circuitry and parts count. Still, it will be more complex than a simple single-ended circuit.