Effects send vs headphone out

[rstephens]

My Darkglass Exponent 500 amp head lists specs as:

Headphone out says max output before clipping 13dBu, impedance <1ohm

Effects send says 12.8 output before clipping but doesn’t list the impedance.

Is there any practical difference between these two outputs when connecting to a power amp?

(I ask because the headphone output mutes when the foot switch activates the tuner which is nice, but the effects out doesn’t mute of course, and also the headphone output is controllable by the volume knob while i guess the effects send is fixed at 12.8dbu?).

 

[agedhorse]

My Darkglass Exponent 500 amp head lists specs as:

Headphone out says max output before clipping 13dBu, impedance <1ohm

Effects send says 12.8 output before clipping but doesn’t list the impedance.

Is there any practical difference between these two outputs when connecting to a power amp?

(I ask because the headphone output mutes when the foot switch activates the tuner which is nice, but the effects out doesn’t mute of course, and also the headphone output is controllable by the volume knob while i guess the effects send is fixed at 12.8dbu?).

Yes, in general the headphone output is not intended to drive a power amp, and especially not a balanced input power amp since there is no polarity difference between the tip and ring conductors.

The effects send is operating an the nominal internal operating level of the amp, the input level on the power amp can be used as a master but generally works better all the way up (since that's how the input sensitivity is specified)

 

[rstephens]

Thanks! That makes sense. I got away with it last night but it was a silly setup and I’ll avoid such things in the future!