I absolutely agree. I had a Delta/Alpha combination and found the AT&T and balanced connections were best. The AT&T gave a smoother presentation than the balanced and therefore was preferred (due to my Thiel 3.6 speakers working better with a smooth front end), but in other systems I know others were very happy with the balanced. But your budget is probably the clincher - you are more likely to find something like an Audioquest Optilink Pro AT&T connection second-hand for this price than you are to find a balanced digital cable that is in the same league. At around $150 second-hand you can get some very good cables - Illuminations Orchid, Audioquest Digital 2, Audioquest Falcon, Madrigal (sorry but forgot yhe model number), etc.
