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Questions about splitters, adapters, and the cabling basics.

post #1 of 7
4/6/11 at 10:56pm
Thread Starter 
So. Just getting into this whole audiophile thing and buying a DAC + Headphone Amp... Gonna hook it up to my Klipsch Pro Media 2.1s. But there are no RCA jacks on them, just wondering if using a splitter to take it from 1/8'' to a L/R RCA connection degrades audio quality?
Furthermore, does shrinking a 1/4" down to an 1/8" or vice-versa degrade quality.

Also; what are the basic connectors (other than RCA and 3.5mm and 1/4") And what are they used for? I've seen SPDIF and Banana clips and Optical; there as lots of them and I'm starting to get confused.
This is sorta basic info; did I miss a sticky?
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post #2 of 7
4/7/11 at 12:27am

Instead of a splitter, why not a 3.5mm-plug-to-2x-RCA y cable instead?

Nope, converting from 1/4" to 1/8" does not degrade quality unless the adapter you are using is defective.

 

There is 75-ohm BNC and RCA for SPDIF (digital data) or TOSLink (optical); banana clips(?) for speaker cables, XLR for connecting balanced drive equipment and microphones, and USB, for, well, USB.  ksc75smile.gif

Use Google to get more info on all that and also to find yourself a nice y-cable.  Google is your best friend.

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post #3 of 7
4/8/11 at 6:55am

If your planning to connect speakers to a headphone socket it's a bad idea, you will be double and amping and probley not providing the speakers with enough signal, active speakers or passive amps ideally need 2vrms to the rca input, with y spliters you loose 3db of signal , 1/4" to 1/8"  there will be no lose of signal or quality.

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post #4 of 7
4/8/11 at 10:19am

Those aren't pro audio monitors with XLR and TRS inputs.  It only has a 3.5mm TRS input and another one for output to headphones.  So a y-cable going from DAC/amp line out or preamp out to the speakers will be fine, preferably from the line-out.

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post #5 of 7
4/8/11 at 10:51am
Thread Starter 
I think mad max understands perfectly. Just hooking up my 2.1s through RCA using a y-splitter.
Of course. Since the DAC only has one Line out; how would I hook a couple of big loud speakers (and possibly a sub-woofer) up to it, as well as the 2.1 set?
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post #6 of 7
4/8/11 at 11:08am

Generally when you split a audio signal you loose 3 or 4db of signal, a 3.5mm to stereo rca cable i'm not sure if you loose signal since you aren't sending any of the signal to another device so there probley won't be signal loss.

Passive speakers you connect the rca out on the dac to rca in on the amp, active speakers have rca in aswell, to add a sub you need a sub with a rca pass-thru (rca in & out) so it goes like this, DAC (rca to rca) > SUB (rca to rca)  > SPEAKERS

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post #7 of 7
4/8/11 at 11:27am

He's not splitting a signal, just the cable, lol.  (Splitting a signal is indeed not a good idea.)

That's what he said from the beginning.

Signal loss will certainly be zero.

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