Inquiry on FX Loop Impedance

Colin O

Member
Hey! Kind of a dumb question, but can anyone explain to me why the FX Send is unbalanced, and the FX RTN is balanced?

(See attached acreenshot)

For context, let’s say I wanted to throw in a couple delay and reverb pedals. Now I can’t just stick them in front of the Ax8 because I might want my delay at the end of my chain, before the amp block.

So to achieve this, people use the FX Loop block and go from the unbalanced FX SEND to pedal 1, pedal 2, pedal 3, etc.

We then go from the pedal(s) back into FX RTN — for this reason, shouldn’t the FX RTN be unbalanced to match?

I’m sure there are reasons for it, but I’m just trying to learn about connections and want to make sure I have my stuff rigged up properly

If my assumption is correct, what is the workaround? Maybe to get a converter that will turn the unbalanced TS cable coming out of the last pedal into a TRS, so I can plug into the FX RTN?

Or does it just not really matter?

Thanks!
 

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The reason why the 1/4" outputs are unbalanced is because they use the Humbuster technology instead which requires a TRS socket and cable too. Being low impedance line level outputs there's no real need for having them balanced. You can always connect an unbalanced or Humbuster output to a balanced input via a TS cable without problems. Just don't connect a Humbuster output via TRS to a balanced input. Noise shouldn't play a role on short distance connections from the AX8 to FX pedals on the same board so don't worry about using balanced connections. Using TS cables on balanced inputs/outputs will implicitly render them unbalanced. No adapter needed.
 
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