RCA Interconnect Splitting

[GO-NAD!]

Welcome
How did you resist this long?

I've actually been visiting the Audioholics website for over a year (hadn't heard of it until then, to be quite honest!) but hadn't looked in on the forums until a couple of months ago. Don't know why - I guess I was getting a lot of good info from the website, so didn't bother checking out the forums. I'm very glad I did, finally. The forums are a veritable treasure trove of info, advice and support! I'm happy to be here!

 

[BMXTRIX]

BMXTRIX, I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting, but I think it's what I'd already decided to do. The receiver does have a digital coax input, the CD players only have analog or optical outputs. The analog output is going to my stereo amp right now. So, it'll be an optical cable from one of the CD players (They're "daisy chained" together, so I only need to connect to one of them) to the optical/digital coax converter, then digital coax to the HT receiver in the rec room. Am I making sense?

Yes, that is exactly how to do it.

Just wanted to make sure you didn't take it to coax, then back to optical if you didn't have to.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Yes, that is exactly how to do it.

Just wanted to make sure you didn't take it to coax, then back to optical if you didn't have to.

Well, guess what - I finally decided to take a chance on going optical all the way. After giving it some thought, I figured I could run the cable while avoiding any tight-radius turns. I ordered a 75 foot TOSLINK cable from Monoprice and received it yesterday. Ran it through, hooked it up and it works beautifully! However, one of the features of this cable that I was quite impressed with when I received it, I'm not so sure about now. There is a metal mesh surrounding the cable. When I saw that, I thought "great, it'll be good protection while I'm pulling it through the wall!". But, after I'd finished running and testing the cable, it dawned on me - I hadn't been concerned about a fire rating because the cable doesn't have a metal wire in it. But the mesh around it is! It looks like steel mesh, so it conducts heat much more slowly than copper. I have some experience with welding and brazing, so I can testify to that fact. It takes forever to heat up copper or brass for brazing, because the heat is conducted away so quickly. Steel however, takes mere seconds to heat up. I'm pretty confident that it isn't a hazard, but I don't know what "authorities" might think....

 

[GO-NAD!]

I goofed again! I can't "daisy chain" my CD players through the optical outputs! I should've known that! I just ordered a TOSLINK splitter and two short cables to connect both players to my receiver. Duh.....!