I do use balanced cabels only in the critical connections. Between the preamp and the amp between my digital streamer and the preamp and from my turn table to my phono preamp and from the phono preamp to the preamp. The rest of my connections are rca. I do hear a difference. Now my tape deck my tuner and my TV to my preamp I use rca thoses pieces ate not going to sound any better
Also when you get cabels xlr I. Peticuler get pure silver stranded wire cables they make a huge difference in the sound
I use silver wires for all my cables even the rca and ho with the silver rca ends .I bought all my inter connect cabels at morrow audio except my phono cabel. They don't make them with xlr ends . So I searched the web and found it at Westbury audio in the uk. Hope this helps Michael