Balanced monitor cables

[Andrew Tarpinian]

My KRK Rokit's are putting out a bit of noise/hiss. Never noticed any of these issues with my Alesis active's.

Even with no input connected if I put my ear close to the speaker I can hear a hiss, turning down the gain on the monitors has no effect. It's not a huge issue and might be normal? but I'm thinking I might try playing with how everything is plugged in power wise. I'm also getting variable "computer noise" when the gain on the monitors is set on the KRK recommended +6db, when set to 0 you can't really hear it. 

Right now I am using unbalanced 1/4 cables and I'm thinking of trying balanced to see if it helps any of these issues (the KRK xlr and 1/4 inputs are balanced.) Anyone have any thoughts on what they use for monitor connections, should I go 1/4 TRS or XLR? etc... I'm hooking up to a motu 828 mkII, Thx