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RCA? Optical? Coaxial?

post #1 of 10
1/27/06 at 2:43pm
Thread Starter 
Hello. First let's be clear that I am a big newbie at this.

I am considering upgrading my source, so I have some questions on interconnects.

1) What exactly are RCA connectors? I've seen pictures of them, but I am not sure what are their purposes, and why they are used over a standard 1/4 or 1/8 jack in many DACs.

2) What is more common between optical and coaxial? If I am not mistaken, the X-Fi sound card has an optical out right?

If my setup currently consists of an X-Fi, a Hornet, and the headphones, what interconnect would I need, how much roughly would they cost?

I imagine that its something like:

X-Fi -> Optical cable -> DAC -> RCA to Mini -> Hornet -> Mini to Mini -> Headphone. Correct?
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post #2 of 10
1/27/06 at 4:09pm
RCA connectors carry an analog signal. Each cable carries 1 channel and a ground. A 1/8" or 1/4" has the left, right and ground all in the same cable.

Optical and Coaxial are for digital signals.
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post #3 of 10
1/27/06 at 4:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by meat01
RCA connectors carry an analog signal. Each cable carries 1 channel and a ground. A 1/8" or 1/4" has the left, right and ground all in the same cable.
So is there any reason why it is used of a 1/8" or 1/4". I imagine that it must be better at something, since it is usually the more expensive equipment that uses RCA.

I understand that coaxial and optical out are both used for digital signals. But is one more commonly used than the other?
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post #4 of 10
1/29/06 at 2:08pm
RCA just became the standard for connecting components together, while 1/8" and 1/4" became the standard for connecting headphones to components. They had to be different, otherwise people would be sticking their headphones in places that they shouldn't.

Also the fact that RCA connectors are separated into left and right channels has something to do with it. 1/4" and 1/8" have both channels together, so there would be no way to separate the 2 if you wanted to.
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post #5 of 10
8/7/10 at 2:41pm

Old thread... but instead of making a new one I'm gonna hi-jack this one since I couldn't find any answers...

I was thinking of buyin the Matrix M-Stage amp to go with my iBasso D4 amp. Problem is, the M-Stage has RCA(?) inputs and outputs and my D4 only has line-out.

 

Are there any line-out to RCA cables, and will this work flawlessly?

 

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post #6 of 10
8/7/10 at 2:48pm

RCA only means phono sockets.

You just need a 3.5mm to two phono lead like this one.

Gold_3.5mm_Jack_to_RCA_Phono_Cable.jpg

One question though why would you go from one amp to another amp why not go from you source to the Matrix M-Stage.


Edited by Bazzman - 8/7/10 at 2:59pm
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post #7 of 10
8/7/10 at 4:01pm

Thank you!

I need the DAC. Source is my computer and I don't wanna use my crappy X-Fi since Creative's fudged it up :)

I don't really believe in cables making any difference in sound, but nor do I have any ground to stand on in this matter, so any decently priced cable's fine right?

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post #8 of 10
8/8/10 at 12:44pm

optical is more common than coaxail , over here in anyway

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post #9 of 10
8/11/10 at 5:11pm

Can anyone point me in a direction of 3.5mm / 1/4" to RCA cables that aren't that very long. Preferably >10cm / 3".
ALO has some nice cables but $150, fudge no... In scandinavia would be nice but I'm flexible. All I've found is at least 0.5 m.

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post #10 of 10
8/11/10 at 5:27pm

Just get a short cable from a local electronics store. I think radioshack (around my area) has them in 3ft lengths which works well for many applications. If that's too long just coil it up neatly to avoid clutter.

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