Glad to hear you decided on XLR - balanced is almost always going to sound better than unbalanced in my experience. At least for signal integrity if nothing else. Power cables and other interference is a lot less with balanced.
I like the KLEI RCA connectors, have no experience with thier cables (way too expensive) but one thing to note - the ’silver’ connectors aren’t silver.. https://www.aurealisaudio.com.au/klei-harmony-rca-issues/ FYI. Also you can find the connectors cheaper pretty much any site OTHER than the KLEI site since he put the prices up a year ago. Silly.. I’m currently deciding whether or not to get more KLEI copper connectors for a couple of phono interconnects, or Neutrik profi, or two of each. I need four interconnects from two turntables going into two Rek-o-Kut low noise stereo switches. I figure getting two equal length cables (75cm) with the different connectors will be my first easy way to AB compare KLEI vs Neutrik profi connectors, as I will be using the same Mogami 2965 cable for all the interconnects. The only issue with KLEI I have at the moment other than the claims of silver alloy when it’s silver plated, is that you can’t easily get an 8 pack - There are 4, 6 and 12 packs available but not an 8. Doh! So either 2x 4 packs or a 12 pack and have 4 spare for another interconnect some day (maybe use in an interconnect upgrade for cassette deck or mixer RCA record output). The cheapest I can get the KLEI is a few dollars more per connector than the Neutrik (around $9-10 USD each compared to $13-15 for KLEI)
I personally use Neutrik (the proper ones, not Rean/Ningbo/Yongshen) XLR and TS/TRS, and am now also considering Amphenol for TS/TRS. I don’t believe in paying a fortune for cable - I buy some nice Mogami generally from Redco or designacable.com and get the connectors put on for me at a local cable company. Designacable will make cables up for you for reasonable prices too. In Australia I get Swamp to do my cables - $5 per RCA connector, $10 custom order job fee. Not bad! They don’t have as big a range of parts as designacable but I just send the components/cable I want worked with.
I like the KLEI RCA connectors, have no experience with thier cables (way too expensive) but one thing to note - the ’silver’ connectors aren’t silver.. https://www.aurealisaudio.com.au/klei-harmony-rca-issues/ FYI. Also you can find the connectors cheaper pretty much any site OTHER than the KLEI site since he put the prices up a year ago. Silly.. I’m currently deciding whether or not to get more KLEI copper connectors for a couple of phono interconnects, or Neutrik profi, or two of each. I need four interconnects from two turntables going into two Rek-o-Kut low noise stereo switches. I figure getting two equal length cables (75cm) with the different connectors will be my first easy way to AB compare KLEI vs Neutrik profi connectors, as I will be using the same Mogami 2965 cable for all the interconnects. The only issue with KLEI I have at the moment other than the claims of silver alloy when it’s silver plated, is that you can’t easily get an 8 pack - There are 4, 6 and 12 packs available but not an 8. Doh! So either 2x 4 packs or a 12 pack and have 4 spare for another interconnect some day (maybe use in an interconnect upgrade for cassette deck or mixer RCA record output). The cheapest I can get the KLEI is a few dollars more per connector than the Neutrik (around $9-10 USD each compared to $13-15 for KLEI)
I personally use Neutrik (the proper ones, not Rean/Ningbo/Yongshen) XLR and TS/TRS, and am now also considering Amphenol for TS/TRS. I don’t believe in paying a fortune for cable - I buy some nice Mogami generally from Redco or designacable.com and get the connectors put on for me at a local cable company. Designacable will make cables up for you for reasonable prices too. In Australia I get Swamp to do my cables - $5 per RCA connector, $10 custom order job fee. Not bad! They don’t have as big a range of parts as designacable but I just send the components/cable I want worked with.