Real experience - Balanced or Unbalanced between Luxman Pre & Power Amps

Thanks all and I appreciate all the input.  I'll find a local store that has some cardas options for me to test.  

You get a 6db gain with xlr.you have the same brand components with great synergy and luxman is a great product.enjoy the experiments.the cable company allows you to try products look into that.best of luck

I am not too surprised that you don’t hear a difference, for short runs balanced is not to important. That said, I would lean towards balanced, and the extra db is a good thing. 
 

I have used Blue Jeans Cables and they are well made and a good value, but with gear of this quality you will hear a significant improvement by spending a bit on interconnects. I am a fan of Acoustic Zen Matrix IC’s and I have a friend with similar Luxman gear that uses them for his system. 

I spent some time thinking through my challenge this morning and am slightly spinning.  Here's where my head went.  

My original question was regarding connecting my pre and power amps for which I've received some great tips. The fun starts when I look at the rest of my system: my phono preamp allows both xlr and interconnect options to a preamp, i currently use the blue jeans xlr.  Should I also upgrade these whilst knowing my deck has interconnects feeding the phono preamp?  

Then onto my streamer and its dac, nordost heimdall usb to DAC and QED interconnect to my preamp. 

Whilst I cannot use xlr for every component, should I use where possible to get the extra gain and interconnect where needed but at minimum same brand and model for them all.  Hmmm.  

Anyone with a basic understanding of electricity will understand there is no difference with interconnects regardless of how they attach. Your hearing is normal and correct.