Balanced preamp recommendations

Hi Phil,

I acknowledge that what you say makes sense. Would seem so to me, too. What I've gathered, though, is that the interface for consumer balanced gear is not built to a consistent standard. As a result, you can get varying results when putting together gear from different manufacturers even if all the components are true balanced circuits. And, in some cases, one might actually prefer the sound of the single-ended connection even between two balanced components from the same manufacturer, depending on the rest of one's system, as Jonathan Valin reported as his experience with some components.

My only thought in my original post is that chosing equipment solely because it is balanced may not be the correct "critical path" to success in assembling a system.

I do appreciate your thoughts and sharing your experience.
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Rushton...yep, I have heard of inconsistencies in balanced interfaces as well. Something almost to the effect that European brands and North American brands reverse the positive and negative pins, so that in many cases mixing balanced gear from Europe and North America can result in phase-inversion. Then I heard of one instance where Jeff Rowland makes input-1 on his balanced preamps match the European "standard", whereas all the other inputs match the NA standard. And then I'm sure there are many examples of manufacturers just implementing whatever they happen to be used to.

But yes, I agree that choosing equipment solely because it is balanced is not the critical path, but certainly it is a legitimate consideration IMHO, particularly if by not going balanced forces you to use adaptors and such...

Thanks for the input everyone. I am not dead set on going balanced, it's just that my other equipment all has balanced connections and I am curious as to the improvement it may (or may not) make. In particular, I have been told that my ARC CD3Mkii really steps up notably when run in a balanced system.

I will check out Aesthetix but am not familiar with the character of their gear. Any comments on what I might expect?

Steve, here's a link to a recent review by Robert Harley in TAS:
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/newsletter/151/calypso.html
Where he says, in part:

"The Calypso and Rhea do not sound like tubed electronics. I heard no trace of the classic tube sound—billowy soundstage, soft treble, full and ill-defined bass, or “musicality” at the expense of resolution. Instead, the three words that best describe this duo—and both components share the same qualities—are “open,” “transparent,” and “uncolored.” In fact, these electronics impose the least coloration on the music of any I’ve auditioned. They impart a sense of palpability and immediacy that recalls the magic of live music."

And here's a link to the description on the Aesthetix web site (at Musical Surroundings, the distributor):
http://www.musicalsurroundings.com/aesthetix.html
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what kind of cash you looking to spend on said preamp?