The S8 can be used to split eight balanced low impedance microphone signals into sixteen (eight pairs).

Each channel of the S8 provides one direct output and one transformer-isolated output from a single microphone. Applications include sending the direct outputs to the main or Front-of-House mixer, and the second isolated outputs to a monitor or recording mixer. The direct outputs pass phantom power from the main mixer to the microphones for use with condenser microphones.

The S8 includes a ground-lift switch on each isolated output to reduce hum due to ground loops between connected AC-powered units. For versatility the S8 also features an attenuator pad switch on each input that can be used to connect preamplified signals to the two microphone-level outputs on each channel. Typical preamplified signals would originate from instrument preamplifiers, mixers, keyboards, etc.