antispatula wrote: I've got to run a preamp into an umbalanced reel to reel recorder that has XLR ins and outs. The preamp has a balanced out, but it also has an unblanced 1/4" TRS out. What am I better off doing, getting some sort of DI box/transformer, or just getting a 1/4" to xlr unbalanced adapter? I don't really get much of this, I'm new to all this. Any advice or general info would be great on how I can solve this problem. Thanks!

If it's TRS, it's balanced, not unbalanced. Same for XLR. Three connectors/pins = balanced, two connectors/pins = unbalanced. If your preamp has TRS outputs, and your tape machine has XLR inputs, it's all balanced, and all you need is a pair of TRS to XLR male cables.

actaully, thats what I thought too, if there are 3 pins in XLR, it HAS to be balanced. But turns out it IS unbalanced, and that only 2 pins are connected, pin 3 (hot) and pin 1 (ground).......

Yeah, just because it's got 3 pins doesn't mean it's balanced. If your recorder is for sure unbalanced, just come out of the TS (unbalanced) output of your preamp. If you went out of the TRS, you would not have a true balanced circuit if the recorder is not balanced, and it would just require either a special cable or to just plug a TS male plug one click into the TRS female. If you keep the cable as short as possible, you will not hear any audible difference between balanced and unbalanced anyhow. Balanced cables were origionally made for longer runs of mic cable to cancel interference.

antispatula wrote: actaully, thats what I thought too, if there are 3 pins in XLR, it HAS to be balanced. But turns out it IS unbalanced, and that only 2 pins are connected, pin 3 (hot) and pin 1 (ground).......

It doesn't matter. The same cables (TRS to XLR male) will work.