[JCYC5]

My computer is in one corner of the room, and my "living" area is in the other corner... With my desktop being my primary source of music, I am hoping to have my headphone amp with my TV in the living area, some 25 feet away.
 
Would I be better off with my DAC at the computer (short USB cable), and extend 25 foot of RCA to the amp? Or should I have a long USB cable to the DAC, and a RCA to the amp from the DAC?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I think it's safer to have a longer digital cable, but I don't know how much more jitter you can get with USB at that distance. You could try one of those USB to SPDIF-coaxial cable if your DAC has such an input.

 

[Roller]

You can't have USB cables longer than 5m, or there were be both signal degradation close to 5m, and beyond that the cable won't work without using a signal repeater.

 

[JCYC5]

So should I get something like this? https://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=103&cp_id=10303&cs_id=1030301&p_id=7531&seq=1&format=2&style=

 

[Roller]

Honestly, I prefer to have as short a USB cable as possible for connecting a DAC to the PC, as jitter would be more pronounced over USB rather than through RCAs, which is why I'd rather use a longer RCA cable.

 

[zakman35]

The best solution in your case is to use a Toslink cable.
Toslink is made for situations when the signal needs to travel a long distance.

 

[PleasantSounds]

Quote:

So should I get something like this? https://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=103&cp_id=10303&cs_id=1030301&p_id=7531&seq=1&format=2&style=

 
I'd go with that. Don't worry about jitter - in case of USB connection data is buffered and timed on the DAC, so the cable length doesn't impact it. S/PDIF connection may have that issue, unless you have a pretty sophisticated DAC. Long RCA cables will pick up noise and interferences.