Ah, balanced inputs... There were a couple really big, in-depth threads about this issue back in April of last year when the 990 was announced. Sadly, it actually got heated enough in one thread that one of the contributors (soundhound - a very knowledgeable fellow) got a bit burned out and took what appears to be an extended sabbatical from the forum shortly afterward. If you want to re-visit the debate, it makes for some very interesting reading - lots of facts bounced back and forth. The debate started around this post in the rather lengthy "990" thread and eventually moved over to this separate thread .

As for the balanced cables, you can look at Outlaw's Cables section for their PCB cables . Obviously there are other sources - some similarly priced , many more expensive .