I’ve done that successfully out of a Sony SACD player with both XLR and RCA, and a DBX Equalizer, just to compare the sound. I never experienced a quality improvement, i.e. never had any noise to eliminate, never heard ’better’, but I did find a slight volume increase using the XLR out.
There are subtle differences of ’true balanced’ outputs as per _____ spec, and ’balanced type’ ... too much detail for me to try and remember, just know that all XLR are not equal.
I like that my XLR connectors are the locking type, not easily dislodged/disturbed, whereas RCA connectors can be inadvertently troublesome.
Splitters, I've used them several times over many years, never had a problem, but always felt it was unauthorized.