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I'm looking at the schematic on page 20 of the manual and am not sure myself if the outputs are balanced or unbalanced.

I would like to plug stereo outputs using balanced 6.35mm jacks from either Mix Left/Right or Aux 1/2 into a Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 3rd Gen. Preferably, I'd like to use the Aux 1/2.

I'd like to use the other stereo pair of outputs (e.g. the Mix Left/Right) to send to another room (I have a completely separate question on that).

Thanks for reading and your input.

page 20 schematic electronics diagram - of the Soundcraft Spirit Folio 12/2 - screenshot of manual from: https://www.manualslib.com/download/652810/Soundcraft-Spirit-Folio.html

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It looks like Monitor L/R are unbalanced, while Mix L/R and Aux 1/2 are balanced.

For Mix and Aux you've got two wires (+ and 180°) coming out of the opamp and going to the Tip and Ring contacts. The Sleeve contact on the jack is connected to ground.

For Monitor you've got one wire out of the opamp (+) going to the Tip contact, and the Ring and Sleeve contacts are connected to ground.

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  • Thank you @Hobbes - I'd like to believe you that they are balanced, however Tetsujin believes not - can you comment on Tetsujin's answer, please to advise if you agree with them or not. I have 2 answers so far, 1 from you and 1 from Tetsujin which seem to conflict. Thank you
    – therobyouknow
    Commented Aug 1, 2019 at 19:29
  • +1 and accepted answer. I agree, now. For example, looking at Mix Left/Right - each of these has 3 wires - 2 for the audio signals and one for ground. Crucially, the ground wire is separate from the other wires - so that indicates the overall wiring is balanced. Contrast this with Monitor L/R where one of the wires is linked to ground - which indicates unbalanced. This diagram helps explain balanced by using both the physical wiring and the schematics - which can be cross referenced with the above page on the folio manual - rane.com/note151.html
    – therobyouknow
    Commented Aug 1, 2019 at 22:10
  • Here's another nice example that combines schematics with physical pins: diyaudio.com/forums/vendor-s-bazaar/…
    – therobyouknow
    Commented Aug 1, 2019 at 22:14
  • And finally, here are some similarly nice clear diagrams of wiring for unbalanced: engineeringradio.us/blog/2011/03/unbalanced-to-balanced-audio community.klipsch.com/index.php?/topic/… sears.com/… Again, crucially, as mentioned - note how one of the connectors is linked to ground/earth. Effectively, this means only 2 separate cables. Furthermore, phono/RCA wiring just has 2 separate poles with 1 wire for each.
    – therobyouknow
    Commented Aug 1, 2019 at 22:21
  • This is the correct answer, hence accepted and upvoted. Thank you Hobbes!
    – therobyouknow
    Commented Aug 2, 2019 at 12:07

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