I think it's important to emphasize what Ljgj has already stated: that an XLR cable does not necessarily a balanced connection make. Lots of components have XLR connections without having fully balanced circuitry. And without fully balanced circuitry from input to output both all along the sonic chain as well as within each component, one is as likely to be adding non-musical artefacts to the signal rather than removing them. This is because the signal will have to be converted to single-ended and/or back again and any such manipulations usually add something to the signal. Having said that, so far I've found excellence of design and build quality to be more of a predictor for good sound than presence or absence of XLR connectors. As always, if you already have the capability, it's worth a try, especially for long cable runs. dr.joe
