Audio Research reference amplifiers used with RCA IC`s and unbalanced preamplifiers

+Atmosphere! Better from the horse's mouth than the horse's ass. :-)

No, they were different brands. I guess my point was that cable construction was probably more important than whether or not it was balanced or unbalanced unless you had noise problems to deal with. 

"But part of the appeal...."

But how much of that appeal is really important if you have short runs and no noise issues. I always thought the real benefit of balanced stuff was the connectors and as a solution to noise when used in long runs, i.e. like in a recording studio.

OP, IMHO if you like your present IC’s and pre-amp just use a converter plug. Otherwise you have to go through the painful and expensive process of developing a new and synergistic system, pre-amp & IC’s.

FWIW.

BTW, the first time I had a fully balanced set up I liked my unbalanced cables sonics better than my first set of balanced cables (25ft long!).

nsp, re impedance issues you referred to. The 300K input impedance should make it a good match, impedance wise, to any SS or tubed preamp, or source directly connected. But, FWIW, I think the other impedances you attribute to ’amplifiers’ refer to the input impedance of your preamps. What is relevant however, as it relates to your amp, is the preamps output impedance.