Yes, the Hap-Z1es is fully balanced. However, it inverts phase....pins 2 and 3 are backwards to the American standard. The unbalanced is inverted too. Sony is said to be addressing this issue in a software upgrade soon.
The balanced outs have a different op amp in them and different coupling caps with no bypass caps. The unbalanced outs have better Burr-brown op amps and different caps with small bypass caps. I would think the unbalanced might sound better. Never listened to balanced as I use the unit unbalanced and modified.
My modified units have the phase correct on all outputs.
