Cables and questions

[jdlech]

Decades ago, I was in the military and stationed in the philippines. There, I bought quite a bit of stereo equipment. Since then, I've had to stick most of it in the closet for over a decade.

I've recently come into a situation that allows me to put it all back together, but there's been a number of changes since then.

First, all my music is now digital. I would like to put it all on a hard drive and connect a computer to my stereo. But I've noticed that most sound cards use 3 conductor TRS connectors while my equipment uses RCA.

There's also a surround sound processor that I would also like to get,

http://www.lexiconpro.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=146
but it's inputs and outputs are also TRS connectors. So I would have to convert to and back more than once.

The question I have is: how's the sound quality of these 3 conductor cables compare to 4 conductor RCA? Will I have some compatability problems, like impedance mismatching? All my equipment is around 2k - 3.5k ohm inputs and outputs. How does the stereo separaton (crosstalk) compare?

I'm having some trouble finding any useful information. Could anyone here help me out?

 

[whubbard]

I have seen many many people using RCA to 1/4" (TRS) adapters, and haven't heard anybody complaining. I assume that there will be a loss of some of the signal, but I double it will be noticable.

Just make sure you get some decent adapters and you should be fine.
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/RCA-to-1-4.html

 

[m_vanmeter]

by "TRS" plugs, are you referring to standard stereo 1/4" or 1/8" (3.5mm) phone plugs ? If so, you will not have any problems using stereo RCA to stereo plug converter cables. They work very well to feed output from a computer sound card (3.5mm or 1/8" stereo plug) to the AUX input (RCA) on a receiver or amplifier.

Just a thought.....if you have older equipment, rather than spend many $$$ on a surround processor, you might consider a new a/v receiver or pre-amp. Use your older receiver for a secondary two channel stereo system.

 

[j_garcia]

$4.00 at www.partsexpress.com for a RCA to TRS 1/4"

 

[jdlech]

I don't have a receiver, I have:

2 Kenwood Basic M2a amps
Kenwood Basic M1 amp
Kenwood Basic C2 preamp
Teac V900X Tape Deck - considering selling it after I digitize everything.
ART 341 equalizer (new, but these things are a dime a dozen these days)
Yamaha T-1000 Tuner
DBX 5BX-DS
DBX 120X-DS

Antequated, but still sounds golden (to my aging ears at least).
I had a linear tracking turntable that didn't survive storage. So I'm going to need one when I go to digitize all my vinyls.

On closer inspection, it looks like the MX500 has separate jacks for left and right, so it's just a matter of different jacks. However, it does not seem to use front and rear speakers.

Maybe I should just keep looking for a good Yamaha DSP-100...