converting Rega to balanced output?

That's in the plans Miner!

I have done this operation a number of times.

The Rega arm is set up with RCA cables coming right out of its base. But if you take it apart, what you find is that there is a tiny dime-sized round circuit board on the other side of that rubber plug that is in the base of the arm.

This allows you to set up balanced operation. Follow the regular color codes: black shield for *both* channels and pin 1 on the XLRs, red pin 2 of the right channel XLR, green pin 3 of the right channel XLR and so on.

The problem you will run into is that there is not a lot of room. Usually what I have had to do is use a drill to go through the rubber plug to make more room for the cable I am using.

BTW, for that I usually use Mogami Neglex console cable. It is only 1/8" in diameter, is OFC and has a twisted pair inside with a shield. What you will find when you go to balanced is that the interconnect cable plays a minuscule role in the overall sound compared to single-ended so using a cable like this is absolutely no worries for the audiophile nervosa challenged.

Good luck- don't rush it :)

Ahh the wiring from the arm does not even have to be modified.
Since a cart is naturally a balance device, just use a adaptor at the phono box end. The RCA with one leg as the ground on the RCA cable does not matter at all in this case. (as there is never any common ground between plus and minus legs anyway!!!)
Just run the center pin to the hot pin, and the RCa ground to the negative balanced pin, and leave the balanced ground pin float.
Simple, and you do not screw up the Rega wiring.
Which you might really mess up, or if you want to sell later, you are screwed... Just saying..
So my advice is just use an adapter end on the Rega wires to the balanced phono box. Agree it sdoes add one more connector set between the cart and phono, but better than the screwing around trying to change wires...
I have a balanced phono, an Audio research PH-2. but i do not use it with my Raga P5 right now.

Elizabeth, best I can make out from your post, that scenario will hum. The problem is that the stock arm cable uses the minus output of the cartridge as a shield, so if that is used on pin 3 of the XLR you will have a substantial hum.

Its unfortunate that the arm does not have a 5-pin connector or else this would be really easy. But it does have the little circuit board, so it is possible.a

'I have done this operation a number of times' (Atmasphere). Well the best upgrade for the Rega is the rewiring of the mentioned part (from the collar to the pre). I have never seen such a worthless cable before.
This is, I assume, the reason why Atmasphere rewired this arm also for his friends(?). On ebay.uk you can get all the needed parts, even the special made Din 5 connector
so you can use any phonocable you like. If you are scilful you can rewire the arm all the way from the cart 'pins' to the phono-pre. The construction of Rega is such that you
have easy access to the armwand. The balanced connectors have only sense if you have a really balanced phono-pre. You should check the thread(s) about this issue.

Regards,