In that interview with Roger Sanders I posted some time ago, he claimed that noise and distortion levels are higher in balanced topology, so that it becomes an inferior choice unless one has significant noise to deal with.
Is he wrong on this? I have noticed, though, that some of the amplifiers that have been tested in stereofile have had higher noise and THD on the balanced inputs - but that may well be because the balanced input is just added as an extra on otherwise unbalanced topology, which means extra circuitry. Amplifiers and gear which only operate in balanced mode may not have this problem.
FWIW, I've never perceived noise to be a problem in my home environment when using unbalanced connections. Yet I still use balanced at the moment, because most of my gear is from the pro world.