# RCA Y-Splitters cause any signal degradation?



## HiGHFLYiN9

On the output of my CD player, would RCA Y-Splitters cause any signal degradation? I'm planing on plugging in 2 amps to the same connection.


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## ooheadsoo

I plug my sub in with them and it sounds fine to me. I didn't even buy the nice radioshack splitters that look like the vampire splitter, but their SUPER CHEAPO ones.


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## HiGHFLYiN9

I got some Dayton Audio ones, they were $4 a pop and they look relatively sturdy. It gets a little annoying to A/B with Eichmann's (they are really hard to put on and take off).


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## Howie

In a no compromise system it's bound to but its effect might be liveable for the convenience it offers. Try it for yourself the splitter is surely cheap enough. You can always remove the splitter and connect things directly when you want to listen critically.


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## ooheadsoo

I really didn't notice a degradation. If there was one, it was surely in the "few % points" range, perhaps <1%, even. In a zero tolerance absolute system, it's obviously not ideal, but for the rest of us...It's a fine solution until we can afford to get that preamp with the two preouts.


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## sacd lover

As long as the input impedence of the two amps isnt to much for the cd players output stage to drive, you will be fine. Furthermore, I have used and compared splitters vs the straight input in the past, and I did not hear any degradation. However, the splitters are hard on the rca connectors because of the added weight. Also, if the hd 300 is one of the amps your planning on driving, you will not need splitters anyway. The hd 300 has the pass through, or tape out as Craig calls it, that will allow you to drive a second amp. The hd 300 receives a signal, which is then essentially split internally at the amps input, and routed to the tape out rca's. I am planning on driving two amps in this manner, just like you . If you remember, thats part of the reason why I wanted the 100k pot on the hd 300 . The higher impedence pots when paralleled will be much easier for my source to drive. I will have two amps with 100k input impedence, which when paralleled, will result in an easy 50k final load to the cd players output stage.


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## tomek

i noticed a difference when i had my cdp spilt to my stax headamp and my HT receiver.

 it wasn't just a small subtle degredation either, i basically had to put them in a shoe box after that and go back to switching by hand.


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## Howie

I'm using a Y splitter with my Satellite receiver audio. Everything sounds fine although I seem to be having increased noice but I haven't checked back to see if the splitter was the culprit.


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## Ebonyks

In theory, of course there will be effects. In practice? Not likely, i'd A/B it, but i wouldn't really worry about it


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## Ctn

It wont degrade the signal.


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## HiGHFLYiN9

Quote:


 _Originally posted by sacd lover _
* If the hd 300 is one of the amps your planning on driving, you will not need splitters anyway. The hd 300 has the pass through, or tape out as Craig calls it, that will allow you to drive a second amp. * 
 

Yes I saw that, there is a line out and a "REC" out. I know one of them is effectively a pre-amp output and the other is just a pass through huh? Which one is which? Lol, thanks, sorry for the noobish question but i couldn't google it last night.


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## sacd lover

line out = preamp output and rec= pass through.


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## tomek

i asked this question a couple of months back and i got the exact same responses.

 remember, this is me, i can't hear cable differences. i'm a super skeptic.

 using my new splitters, i was listening to a medeski,martin,wood disc and something was wrong with the bass. it was VERY flabby. i didn't need to a/b it, that's how wrong it was. i checked it with a few other discs and noticed that on deep bass extension the bass was fizzling out.

 to test it out, when i had the splitters in, and the cable to my headamp connected, but the cable to the receiver connected only to the splitter and just hanging on the ground it was fine. But once i connected that cable to the receiver things went wrong. i'm not sure if the CDP couldn't handle the load or what the explanation was...


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## sacd lover

tomek,

 I think maybe your source did not like the load as you theorize. When you parallel amps like this you halve the impedence the source sees and increase current demands. If you have, for example, two 100k inputs, thats still an easy to drive 50k load the source sees. However, if you have, for example, 20k and a 15k input impedences, you would have an impedence well under 10k. That would be a very tough load for most cd players. If you know the input impedence of your amps, that would give you a good idea if the load will be to much for your cd players output stage. 

 There can be an incompatibility issue elsewhere too, such as the capicitance of the interconnects the source has to overcome. Did you use the same interconnects for both connections?Were the interconnects the same length? When you start adding in two loads with two different impedences, and then two different interconnects that have different capicitance etc; that is hard for a source to deal with. One last thought, did the weight of the splitter and the two interconnects pull down the front of the rca's when both were connected and possibly break contact slightly? I had some trouble with this causing some noise and interferance from a source with flimsy rca's.

 I am certainly no expert as to why you have had trouble. But I have had some of the same problems in my system. If you use good splitters, the source rca's are rugged enough to support the extra weight, and you have equipment with high impedence input stages to give your source an easy load to drive; you should not have to much trouble getting this to work.


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## MichaelFranks

Has anyone tried the new outlaw Y adaptor?


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## cpw

I also was wondering about this. I was so happy w/ the sound of my system I was a bit paranoid about compromising sound by splitting the signal. I'm sure splitting in itself should have next to 0 effect but one of my runs was going to be much longer than the other and w/ a different type of interconnect and going to an HT amp w/ unknown input impedance characteristics. I decided that rather than risk allowing interference in from the long run (27'), I'd buy a switch to take the unused cable out of the circuit completely. Head-Fier Fiddler makes a nice looking passive switch and I've got one on order. His cables also look nice so I ordered some of those too! I'd try it to see if you hear a difference; otherwise a switch like Fiddler's might help.
 CPW


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## Marleybob217

This thread might be dead, but I wanted to contribute.
   
  I'm splitting a signal from my dac using rca y-splitters like anyone else. I can tell you now that the splitter will not degradate the signal, the added receiver will. 
   
  When I unplug the second receiver from the splitter the sound is good, when I plug in the second receiver the sound turns very narrow (almost mono sounding), grainy and just very bad. This actually is very noticable, It's like the sound get's chopped in half, like literally chopping the two channels in half. 
  Btw, I'm using a mono to 2 times mono splitter. Also, even when the second receiver is turned off, sound degeneration will still occur.
   
  Maybe it has something to do with my two receivers, maybe the guy who sold me the splitters sold me the wrong ones (unlikely), but the sound is definitely being degenerated. 
   
   
  EDIT: I just found out I had another bad splitter somewhere in the chain. This was a male male mini jack to 2 female mini jacks splitter. I used this to interconnect mini jacks, however this was not the right use of this splitter obviously.
  I have very cheap gold plated rca splitters, but I don't hear any sound degredation.


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## xxicrimsonixx

Using too many splitters in series will cause degradation, as well as length of cables (being too long) can also cause signal degradation.


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## Marleybob217

Especially when you use one of these to connect two mini jack cables.
  Using a cable splitter from the wrong end, fail.


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