Balanced will reduce noise (in terms of RF noise, of course) significantly better than unbalanced,
In this situation I don’t think it will at all.
I don’t think that balanced vs unbalanced is actually electromagnetically that different in this particular configuration (see my edit at the end of above). Things like where the wire is sitting on your body and what pose you are in will probably affect RF noise pickup levels on the headphone wires much more than changing between bal & unbal signalling.
but the source of noise does need to be far enough away from the capturing device to not affect it directly and, therefore, be able to be negated by the balanced cable.
I didn’t get into near-field and far-field effects. I’m not sure that it really matters here, but I might be wrong.
I was going off the few pages I read, including the one I linked. I’m far from an expert in this realm, so, really, I don’t have any substantial argument for or against what either of us are saying. However, filmography, and the related foley artistry, has always intrigued, and I have learned from experience the differences between using a standard jack and an XLR, and I can say that the sound is vastly cleaner with XLR (at least on a set). The secondary jack on this phone seems to be to XLR what USB-microB is to USB-A (again, going off what I’ve read). You do make a lot of sense, though, in your posts, so I may be flat wrong here haha
learned from experience the differences between using a standard jack and an XLR, and I can say that the sound is vastly cleaner with XLR (at least on a set).
Your experiences were correct, don’t doubt them. That would have been ground-referenced equipment, ie plugged into wires that eventually join a wall. RF interference would interact with that quite differently, unbal vs bal would be quite different.