My Recording Engineer friend & I always get into this argument and just let him win out of respect to my Elders 😁.
He insists that XLR is only for long runs and recording situations. I totally agree. But I love XLR’s because they are easy to solder (just remember pin 1 is GND) and you can join them together for longer runs in the home situation. I HATE RCA CONNECTOR SOLDERING !!! My entire rig is XLR input to output except for a pair of RCA’s for my TT, another pair that I built for my Headphone Amp’s inputs, and my Atmos Channels.
Also I refuse to mute or turn off equipment just to plug/unplug cables. RCA single ended gives you that nice ’BANG" & "BUZZ" that you don’t get from a properly Balanced XLR circuit.
As Paul McGowan once postulated in one of his earlier YT Video’s. Let’s just do away with RCA altogether just go balanced on everything. Circuit components are dirt cheap nowadays so why not ?
I’ve also chopped off many and old 3 conductor Monster & Audioquest Cable and converted them to XLR use with no issues.
It’s not about sound quality. It’s about convenance. When will "Audiophools" get it through your thick heads ? It’s taken me forever BTW.
Cheers,
Joe