Unbalanced consumer audio into balanced audio

  I'm working on an old stereo tube tape machine. It has some old 1950's tubes that sound amazing when cranked. It has a mic pre and EQ. I want to use the machine as a stereo unit for room mics or geek mic. This is a consumer machine that has unbalanced ins and outs and there is a lot of crosstalk going on. I want to make the input/output connections balanced if possible. Balanced inputs to better interface with pro audio connections, as well as to reduce noise and crosstalk in the machine. Can someone point me in the right direction? 

If it's a tube circuit, it may already use an output transformer, if so it might be possible to float the output windings and get balanced outputs.

In general you don't need a true balanced output for good signal integrity, just a differential input stage on the receiving unit, and differential (3 circuit) wiring between the two units.

Full balanced (differential) sends are only somewhat useful for very long runs.

JR

Hi,
The simplest thing you could do to make in and out balanced is to add transformers in and out.I had one of these old stereo recorders recently. It allready had a mike input transformer wired unbalanced. If yours has one, it could be easy to fix. By the way, I don't think balancing in and out will change much crosstalk. It might be mostly due to internal construction and layout.