Balanced vs Unbalanced Audio / TRS / XLR

Balanced audio cables will give you a better, cleaner signal than unbalanced cables.
Ie less noise.

Unbalanced (2 wires):
TS cable
TS stands for Tip Sleeve.
Tip = signal wire
Sleeve = ground

 RCA cables

 As the audio signal goes down the cable, it can pick up noise.
Therefor dont use in long cable situations (greater than 25ft)
There are just 2 wires in the cable.
1. signal wire
2. ground wire
The ground can act like an antennae picking up unwanted noise along the way.
Most of the noise comes from power cables.
Thus, try to keep the power cables away from your audio cables.

Balanced (3 wires)

1. Hot signal wire (positive)
2. Cold signal (negative)
3. Ground

Wires 1 & 2 have opposite polarities until the end when the polarity of the cold signal is flipped back
to match the hot signal.

 TRS
Tip, ring sleeve
Tip = hot
ring = cold
Sleeve = ground

XLR

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There are lots of variations of this cable.
 This is a 1/4" TS to 3.5mm TRS Mono Interconnect Cable.

It's designed to apply a mono signal equally to a mini stereo phone input. It may be used to connect a mixing console to a portable media player, laptop

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If  you wish to wire a male XLR cable to a unbalanced monojack 

Pin 2 is HOT / Positive

Connect this to the tip of your jack.

Pin 1 is ground/shield.

Pin 3 is your cold / negative

Connect Pins 1 & 3  to the sleeve

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The reverse is of course the case for a female XLR