To get all advantages of Ayre, you should use balanced preamp. In your case balanced or unbalanced doesn't matter.
XLR or RCA cables
In my system I have an Audible Illusions preamp that only accepts unbalanced (RCA)outputs while my Ayre amps accept only balanced (XLR) outputs. I am currently running 2 meter RCA interconnects with adapters at the amp but was wondering if running XLR cables with an adapter at the preamp would offer any improvement. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks.