This was a review tour unit so it’s possible with others using it and it being transported via shipping something dried out the hinges. Yes balanced cables would of definitely helped. The only mini xlr headphone I have are the lcd2c and I never cared to get a balanced cable for those. I blame some of the hotspot issues on the fact I run the DC audio Aeons almost daily and even putting on my lcd2c causes hotspot issues now when it wasn’t a problem before. I’m guessing It’s just been a while wearing heavy headphones haha
MIght want to use the balanced outs for more power out?