Balanced and detachable

When Stan and I started PS Audio in 1974 the only products with balanced inputs were in radio stations and concert halls, nowhere to be seen in consumer stereo equipment. And detachable power cords were unseen as well. I can remember Bill Johnson, the owner of Audio Research, announcing it would be over his dead body before he gave customers the opportunity to swap power cords - and I don't think he was much fonder of balanced cables either. That was then. There's still a shred of wisdom in Bill's reasoning on detachable power cords; he felt strongly that he knew best what worked with his equipment. But balanced ins and outs are a different story. They should be better. There was a time, perhaps during the transition from single ended to balanced, that SE cables did sound better - but I suspect that was because the same level of design attention lavished for years on SE cables and circuitry had yet to extend to balanced. Given a choice with modern equipment you're better off with balanced interconnects than SE. And that detachable power cord? Since there's no perfect cable ever made, I think they're a great idea. We should be given choices.