Franklin Audio RA-200 Stereo Re-Amp w/ Wet-Dry Control & Stereo Send & Return

The final boss of re-amping

Turn any pedal in your collection into high-performing outboard gear with our most advanced re-amping unit yet. Stereo, mono, modern, vintage – the RA-200 can run any audio from your session through your instrument effects with all the gain, impedance and blend controls you need to dial in tone and behaviour that feels like high-end processing.

With a huge maximum input level of +22 dBu, the RA-200 has more headroom than you'll ever need. It runs on a standard 9V pedal supply but boosts that to 30V inside, so it will never distort.

Send, return, Dry/Wet blend and true bypass, in one unit that slips into a 1U rack or sits handsomely on your desk. It's the last re-amp you'll ever need.

Connections

Line Level Inputs
2 x XLR/TRS combo inputs to receive balanced stereo audio from your audio interface, converters or mixer.

Instrument Level Send/Return
2 x TS (i.e. guitar lead) send jacks and 2 x TS return jacks on the rear, mirrored on the front panel. Front jacks override the rear when connected, so you can patch in a pedal for a quick experiment without unplugging your main chain.

Line Level Outputs
2 x balanced XLR and 2 x balanced TRS outputs for sending your processed audio back to your interface, converters or mixer.

Power
9V DC, centre negative. PS-9 power supply included, or use any standard pedal supply.

Controls

Send Level
Sets how hard your track hits the pedals. The bold dot at about 2 o'clock is the sweet spot. Back it off to clean things up, or crank it to slam them. It also mutes completely, so you can throw a single phrase into a reverb or delay and let it ring.

Impedance (Z)
A Telecaster and a Les Paul have wildly different output impedances, so we figured a re-amp box shouldn't be stuck with just one. Vintage fuzzes react dramatically. Some modern pedals won't care at all. No rules, just ears.

Front Insert
Two send and two return jacks on the front panel. Plug in and they override the rear ones, for when a new pedal arrives and can't wait until tomorrow.

Ground (GND)
Lifts pin 1 on the inputs to kill ground-loop hum. The way the RA-200 is designed, you'll rarely need it.

Polarity (Ø)
Flips the polarity of the return. Not every pedal keeps your signal the right way up, and blended with the dry track that sounds hollow and weird. One press and it comes back to life. Or flip it on purpose with an amp-sim pedal for some Tchad Blake-style subby low end.

Bypass (BYP)
Hardwire true bypass. It skips every pedal so you can hear what you've done. Sometimes the answer is "too much", and that's useful too.

Dry/Wet
Blends your original track with the pedal return, like the mix knob on a plugin. Stereo blend knobs are surprisingly hard to get right; most add noise or have dead spots where nothing happens. Ours is quiet and smooth across the whole turn. Try a reverb at 100% wet into a distortion pedal, then blend: a crystal-clean hit with filthy, messed-up tails.

Output Gain
Up to 32 dB of clean gain to bring everything back to line level. The bold dot at midday is unity, matched to the bold dot on Send Level. Keep an eye on your DAW meters. The RA-200 can take whatever you give it.

What's in the box

• RA-200
• PS-9 9V power supply
• 2 x rack ears and 4 x M5 screws

10-Year Warranty

We don't make anything we wouldn't be proud to have in our own studios, and we back our products 100%. That's why the RA-200 comes with a 10-year warranty.

Manual

RA-200 User Guide v1.0 (PDF)