Balanced xlr or rca for Ayre C5xe

I was doing an A/B comparison some time back with an Ayre cx-7e vs a c-5xe going through Ayre k-3 preamp and v-1 amp. I had 2 sets of AQ Cheetahs - balanced and rca. I definitely preferred the rca interconnects. The difference was not subtle.

Mcrheist,
I agree with you that everything I have heard, balanced should be better. I am pretty sure I had everything set up properly, even making sure that on the Ayre V-3 the RCA connections phase was inverted (per Ayre's instructions). I found it perplexing. The balanced had more pronounced and dynamic frequency extremes, but the RCA was more musical. My brother was in on the listening session and agreed with me on the sound.
I have since moved on to tubes and different interconnects, but I have to say would not go out of my way to get an all balanced system based on my experience.
Actually, I thought the AQ stuff was pretty good with the Ayre, although I understand that Ayre and Cardas are very synergistic, although one should order the Cardas without the ferrite beads, since Ayre stuff already has high frequency filters (Ayre conditioner).