I find the bal/se question highly equipment and environment-dependent. Sometimes, SE just sounds better and more authentic when you think it shouldn't. On the other hand with digital, I have noticed that on DACs that have RCA, BNC and AES/EBU inputs for S/PDIF, the AES/EBU input nearly always sounds best of the three, and usually better than USB up to the AES input's limits of resolution.since I went fully balanced I noticed a big improvement in the sound quality.I would like to hear what other people on wbf think.is balanced better than the old standard rca single ended.
But on the analog side, BAL doesn't always play as superior. However I have to say that in cases where BAL is sonically better than SE, differences in cable are very much reduced, or made moot, compared to SE of the same wire types.
Phil