Adding a power amp, RCA cable question

[Tony Starks]

I've just bought a 3 channel power amp to power my LCR and I'm finding the interconnects confusing. It seems you can get a 2 connect analog, but not single or a single digital, but not double.

Can digital and analog be mixed? Or is it the same thing, just labeled differently?

[tonyg58]

Analogue and digital RCA cables have a slightly different impedance, nothing else.
Analogue cables are sold in pairs as that is how they are normally used.
Digital cables are sold singly as that is how they are normally used.
Ideally you would use three matched cables to your power amp.
Cheapest way would probably buy two pairs of analogue cables and use three of them.

[Deranged Rover]

There is very little difference between an analogue and digital cable as, surprisingly, the cable doesn't know or care what you put down it.

A 'digtal' cable should be properly impedance matched to whatever it's being used on (75 Ohms for S/PDIF for example) but this will make no difference to its performance at audio frequencies if you stick an analogue signal down it.

As an aside, you can still get three way phono cables with red, white and yellow plugs that were originally intended for carrying left audio, right audio and video. One of these would do fine.

https://www.leadsdirect.co.uk/product-category/aud...

[VEX]

Deranged Rover said:

As an aside, you can still get three way phono cables with red, white and yellow plugs that were originally intended for carrying left audio, right audio and video. One of these would do fine.

https://www.leadsdirect.co.uk/product-category/aud...

Agreed, but in an ideal, purist listening world i would be cautious about the screening of these types of cable. Designed for certainly a lower quality of video. Same audio mind, it will just depend on the level of interference floating around the back of your amp / cables, the screening efficiency of said cables and how critical you are about sound.

[Tony Starks]

Thanks, so basically you can use video for audio. But not vice versa :thumb:

[TonyRPH]

Tony Starks said:

Thanks, so basically you can use video for audio. But not vice versa :thumb:

For composite video, only the nastiest of cables will have a negative affect on image quality for lengths around 2 to 5M.

It doesn't take much to transfer composite video over short distances (usually less than 2M).

The same goes for digital (SPDIF) audio - even the most basic of cables will transfer the signal without any loss of quality over short distances (less than 2M however I've successfully transferred digital audio over a basic 5M subwoofer cable in the past).