I think TS= tip, sleeve and TRS= tip, ring, sleeve, pertaining to how they are built and soldered. The tr is mono with one hot= tip, and sleeve=ground, and the trs is stereo with two hots,hot left and right=tip and ring, and sleeve=common ground. You can visually see the difference when you look at them. The trs can be used as two seperate cords as in a send and return where the tip and sleeve combo may be the send and the ring and sleeve combo may be the return. Alot of mixers are set up to be used this way. This has something to do with the way you insert the cord, I cant rememer off the top of my head, we'll have to look it up in our manuals.