[PaganDL]

Hi @Heinstar,

As a few others have said, in all honesty, your Sescom should be more than fine, they make decent to good gear.

I suggest looking into Pro Audio gear for possible solutions for more interconnectivity with little to no detrimental signal degradation.
This goes for you too, @cc chabba

In this area, patch bays come to mind though most support TRS plugs but getting adapters are easy enough so you might want to look into these then a switcher becomes largely irrelevant.

Otherwise, a cheat I do for audio signal distribution in my audio chain is from my DAC's (Lexicon Alpha) Head Out, I run a 3.5 mm to TRS Cordial Cable into the Presonus HP 4 input in the back which in turn, sends the audio signal to any of the HP4 Head Outs & the pass through in the back to a Hifi Amp which drives Passive Speakers.
Presonus HP 4 can also be infinitely chained together with no signal loss or degrgdation so if you need a multiple affordable solution where RCA &/or 3.5 is the only requirement, then I suggest looking into this head amp.
There are 3.5 mm to RCA cables which Cordial or anybody for that matter, especially in Pro Audio can make or have off the shelf, which can help add more RCA support.
Otherwise, from my DAC, all audio is sent to my Monitor Controller, Drawmer MC 2.1 which sends signal to Powered Speakers & can also support balanced outputs for head amps.

Feel free to ask questions if you need as I am very familar with the HP 4.

Hope this all makes sense too.

Hope you have a great day !

 

[gimmeheadroom]

. But I prefer to not take any risk in potentially worsening audio quality by using RCA switches. But at the same time, prior to using RCA switches, I was disconnecting and reconnecting the RCA cables to switch amps which was eventually going to wear out the RCA cable and the RCA output of the amp over time.

So my question is, are RCA switches known to degrade audio quality? Do audiophiles stay away from using them?

I guess somebody would need to measure the actual switch to know but in theory, sure, extra stuff in the signal path is considered undesirable. Will you (or anybody) be able to hear the difference? I doubt it.

But RCA cables are meant to be plugged in an out. I doubt you can wear out the terminals and in most case they should be reasonably easy to replace. And cables are definitely easy to replace.

I have a bunch of amps and at first I used the dual output adapters but I got tired of them moving around so now I just unplug and plug the cables. Don't worry, be happy

 

[BlueSkyHi]

Ok this is not the purist answer necessarily, BUT its free to try and easy to implement. If the interwebs are to believed, both those amps have pre outs. Try ditching the switcher and running to one amp and then preout to the other amp. Try each one as the first amp, and see which combo you like best. There are now 2 volume controls but you can set the second amps vc to where it works best with the 1st amps vc. My dac has a vc and I set my amps vc at about 40%, though I could max the amp if I wanted to, the 40% range gives me more volume control range on the dac. My guess is that the schiit-> Darkvoice setup will be prefferred. Imagine if the Darkvoice had the bass of the Shciit. Anyhow its easy to try.

Good luck.

I am considering using this switch box to switch the low level moving coil cartridge output from my turntable to either input of the two phono preamps I have; one for sending to my main listening system and the other is a digitizing preamp for ripping vinyl. As long as the leads are kept short and of high quality, is there any reason that this box won't work for me?

 

[Shane D]

I'm using this RCA switcher by Sescom: https://www.amazon.com/Sescom-SES-AUDIO-AB-Stereo-Audio-Switch/dp/B008BMLXAU.

I switch between DarkVoice 336SE and Schiit Jotunheim. I've decided to use two amps because Rock, Rap and Vocal songs tend to sound better on DarkVoice while EDM tend to sound better on Jotunheim.

I'm using my Sennheiser HD600 for the DarkVoice and HD650 with 4pin XLR for Jotunheim. HD600's clear mids seems to pair better with DarkVoice, while HD650's pronounced bass seems to pair better with Jotunheim.

This is how they're set up:
Mac mini > Tidal/Audirvana Plus > Audioquest Forest USB A to B > Schiit Elitr > BLJ Coaxial 6ft > Schiit Modi Multibit > 3ft BJC RCA > Sescom A/B switcher > 3ft BLJ RCA to Darkvoice 336SE & 6ft BLJ RCA to Jotunheim

I've also done other things to maximise audio quality:

• I went with 6ft Coaxial cable because of the potential reflection from cables shorter than 1.5m theoretically: https://www.computeraudiophile.com/forums/topic/16781-minimum-length-for-75937-coax-cable-revisited/
• I try to make sure all of my musics on Audirvana Plus is 16-bit/44.1khz since I've heard that Schiit modi multibit only performs the 'multibit magic' on that bitrate. To get the 'multibit magic' from higher fidelity songs, I've heard that you need to upgrade to Gungnir or Yggdrasil.

So far, I haven't noticed any degradation in audio quality. But I prefer to not take any risk in potentially worsening audio quality by using RCA switches. But at the same time, prior to using RCA switches, I was disconnecting and reconnecting the RCA cables to switch amps which was eventually going to wear out the RCA cable and the RCA output of the amp over time.

So my question is, are RCA switches known to degrade audio quality? Do audiophiles stay away from using them?

I ran two switch boxes for quite a while so that I could run all the SE feeds through a Schiit Loki and also offer three of the four amps an XLR input.

I have since moved to split cables. I have one SE cable with a split going from the Loki to two amps. Then a split XLR cable for my two main amps. Works great for me, but I am not an audiophile.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I ran two switch boxes for quite a while so that I could run all the SE feeds through a Schiit Loki and also offer three of the four amps an XLR input.

I have since moved to split cables. I have one SE cable with a split going from the Loki to two amps. Then a split XLR cable for my two main amps. Works great for me, but I am not an audiophile.

Yes you are! You love audio, that's the purest meaning of the word

 

[Shane D]

Yes you are! You love audio, that's the purest meaning of the word

I hear what you're saying and there is some truth to it. But...
1) I cannot hear a difference in different cables.
2) Same with DAC's.
3) I also do not hear any quality loss with using switchers and split cables.

A true audiophile would strongly disagree with me on all the above points.

But I AM a music and headphone lover! Just not a technical one.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I hear what you're saying and there is some truth to it. But...
1) I cannot hear a difference in different cables.
2) Same with DAC's.
3) I also do not hear any quality loss with using switchers and split cables.

A true audiophile would strongly disagree with me on all the above points.

But I AM a music and headphone lover! Just not a technical one.

Rather I think the term has been coopted (hysterical revisionism). Audiophilia is what it says on the can. If you love music you're an audiophile.

We just need to invent a socially-acceptable term for gearheads. I know, it sounds like I just did, but that term is already in use for the car crowd

 

[Hiker816]

I have a Zynsonix RCA switchbox that works like a champ. (It's in the last 2 photos here: https://www.zynsonix.com/Switchboxes_ep_43.html). It is priced like an audiophile piece of kit (though not unreasonably so) and sounds like it. I've noticed what I think is a 2-3 dB drop, but otherwise no SQ degradation at all. And it's turned out to be something I didn't realize I needed until I had it. And now I couldn't live without it.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

That looks like a very nice box indeed. The name sounds similar to one of the members here. I wonder if it is his company or maybe I just remembered wrong.

 

[Shane D]

I have a Zynsonix RCA switchbox that works like a champ. (It's in the last 2 photos here: https://www.zynsonix.com/Switchboxes_ep_43.html). It is priced like an audiophile piece of kit (though not unreasonably so) and sounds like it. I've noticed what I think is a 2-3 dB drop, but otherwise no SQ degradation at all. And it's turned out to be something I didn't realize I needed until I had it. And now I couldn't live without it.

I love the RCA AND XLR box!
Nice looking stuff, but I am guessing a lot more expensive than my Amazon boxes.

 

[Hiker816]

That looks like a very nice box indeed. The name sounds similar to one of the members here. I wonder if it is his company or maybe I just remembered wrong.

Yep, it is @HiGHFLYiN9 who builds them. Great guy, btw.

 

[Hiker816]

I love the RCA AND XLR box!
Nice looking stuff, but I am guessing a lot more expensive than my Amazon boxes.

Thanks! Yeah, it is pricey compared to the Amazon boxes. Zynsonix is audiophile gear which is refected in both quality and price (though he has different levels for different price points).

 

[jb001]

I solved this problem personally by just running split cabling. In my opinion the switch is going to be more cumbersome and more likely to be a low-quality product than a well-made cable to split the signal out. But you have to do what sounds right to you.

 

[msing539]

Lag, mispost

 

[lyramax]

I'll step into these waters.

I wanted the same flexibility as the OP in choice of amp. In my case, I'm going from an iMac Pro via USB to a Benchmark DAC3 DX to one of three amps: the Bottlehead Crack/Speedball, Bottlehead Mainline or Koss ESP-950. I've got a Sescom but found it a bit inconvenient and limited (though I heard no appreciable sound degradation). I researched and found offerings to be scarce. The best of what's available appeared to me to be from Decware and Goldpoint. Both of these are around $400.

In the end, I decided to build my own and ordered a Hammond enclosure, DH Labs RCA jacks (4 pr.) and an Elma selector switch. The parts cost was roughly $260. For wiring, I used what was left of a 2M pair of solid silver balanced interconnect I repurposed to make three pair of single-ended interconnects. I have listened both with and without the switch box in the circuit and can detect no difference. What I gained was the ability to drive any one of my three amps with the turn of a dial.

If you're comfortable doing a little soldering, you can build a box for a lot less than I spent by sourcing less expensive RCA jacks.

For reference, I've attached a few images.



Best,

Joe.

A work of art!