On Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:29:35 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

A thread on another group suggested that these are the norm today. Not
being one who avidly reads the Hi-Fi press, is this so? The poster was
adamant it was the *only* way to feed 5.1 speakers etc that have internal
amps, as unbalanced would cause hum etc. This was from the US, though.

It's quite common for half decent subs to have an XLR connection as
well as phono. Some of the Meridian processors use balanced
connections (although they'd rather you used SPDIF to their speakers!)
and a few other very expensive bits of kit do, but phonos are still
the norm.