"...some components that provide balanced interfaces but have unbalanced internal signal paths implement the conversion between balanced and unbalanced by means of an active stage which may be less than the best sonically, and may in some cases provide inferior results compared to bypassing that stage by using unbalanced connections."
I know for sure that the transport, dac and the preamp I'm considering all have internal differential circuitry making them truly balanced, so I'm safe in this regard.
Balanced from pre-amp to amp gives you much of the "benefit" of balanced circuitry. The source component is not as critical"
Ah, thank you, this is exactly what I'm wondering. So, with this in mind, I might as well save some scratch and go with the less expensive preamp.
Thanks for your thoughts, everyone, and please feel free to lay some more interconnect knowledge on me.
Best,
Alex