admin said:
No, it's because they are tough, good for plugging and unplugging, and good for noise cancellation when using long cables. Neither characteristic is required in a domestic hifi system.
A few years ago I had to abandon my trusty old hifi and switch to professional active studio monitor speakers. Balanced was available on the studio speakers, but I couldn't find any hifi components that did. Luckily the speakers also had digital inputs, so I was able to use those instead.
Why did I have to switch?
I started getting an intermittent distorted voice coming through my speakers which was extremely annoying. I later found out that a near neighbour was a Amateur Radio enthusiast, and his broadcasts were powerful enough to induce interference on my hifi.
My old hifi was not cheap stuff bought from the high street, and I was very annoyed that the problem could have been fixed at source if it had been designed properly.
There's simply no excuse whatsoever that technology that has been proven to be infinitely better is not used in high-end audio costing £1000's. Its doesn't matter if 99% of people won't see a difference, the 1% (of which I was one), see things rather differently.