joeydego said:
Personally, I use and see a benefit in using trs cables thru ebtechs. Just because you don't have noise in the first 9 venues doesn't mean you shouldn't be protected from noise in the 10th. Nothing more amaturish that steady buzz. For the negligible cost after spending 3 grand on effects and a head, seems to be a no brainer. Read the white paper (Google g system white paper). You can't go wrong if you follow Lairds advice on all things G. Another good read is Scot Kahn's book, Modern Guitar Rigs.
Lairds book is a good starting point, but I felt he got hung up details and took his eye off the big picture.
Long story short, I felt he put in an extraordinary amount of effort and expense to produce a result that was inferior to a using a bunch of short patch cables. Both in terms of the sonics due to introducing more noise and electronics into the signal path and in terms of reliability due to introducing more components into the guitar rig.
But, this is only my opinion. Some people really want the brain on their pedalboard, and for those guys the added stuff is obviously worth it. For me it was easier to rack everything (Korg DTR-1000, Furman power conditioner, G-System and a Maxon OD808) and set it on the amp. I never had any ground loop issues, but I never tried running to a second amp.