Truly Balanced Cheaper Preamplifiers?

What does balanced get you? Higher signal to noise ratio
Lower nose floor, the ability to run long interconnects, others
Therefore, expensive cables aren’ts as important also.

Lots of components say they are balanced but include an XLR connection for sales.  The real deal is differentially balanced....seperate circuits for the + and -.  They are twice as much to make as single ended.

I’ve been running a Classe Audio Thirty preamp in balanced mode for many years.  Given it was made in the early 90s you should be able to pick one up for a few hundred now.  In addition to balanced out it has one balanced input plus RCA inputs labeled tuner, cd, video, and phono/aux.  The phono/aux input on mine is used as aux as I have no turntable.  Jumpers are included with it so you can switch it back to phono.  I have a Schiit Modius on order so I can take advantage of its balanced input.  While some have described it as mildly dark I have always found the Thirty to be very neutral.  It’s the reason I’ve used it for so long.

Gustard p26

I support the Schiit Freya + suggestion as well. I picked one up used at a great price, and it's been audio nirvana ever since.  

I had a single ended headphone amp that had humming issues.   I tried some of everything including changing power supplies but it persisted.  I replaced it with a balanced rig and all has been well since.

I use the Freya + in my main system and wanted to try something different in my bedroom system.  As with the OP, I would like to hear about more pre-amps in the sub $1K arena.