I am having a Garrard 301 renovated and I intend to also purchase a preamplifier with balanced circuitry and XLR inputs/outputs, in any event, to be plugged into active speakers also by means of XLR terminated cables. I was considering at one point buying an EMT turntable with an internal balanced phono-preamplifier and the expert selling the same offered to terminate the tonearm leads with XLR plugs to allow for a balanced signal from the phono-preamp to the preamplifier. The renovator of the SME 3012 series II tonearm that will be placed on the Garrard 301 did not appear to feel it was necessary to bother with XLR plugs or a balanced signal. Does maintaining a balanced signal, throughout, from the tonearm to the speakers enhance the sound where the cable length will be no more than 5-10 metres? I appreciate that discussing this matter is a bit like explaining the offside rule and that the stock answer appears to be...no, unless your leads involve long runs but, surely, if a balanced signal, throughout, lowers the noise floor, such can only serve to maintain the integrity of the signal to a far superior extent than an unbalanced signal and the only, real, reason audiophiles don't adopt such approach is because most amplifiers don't, actually, have within them balanced audio circuitry? I would be grateful for members comments and I apologise, in advance, for my lack of knowledge and clumsy rhetoric with regard to such matter I simply wish to get the best possible sound out of my new acquistion.
