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100' PC to Receiver: cable suggestions? (1 Viewer)

Oren

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Aug 10, 1999
Messages
178
I want to connect my PC to my receiver. Snaking a cable around corners and over doorways will take roughly 75'. The PC is 1/8" stereo out miniplug, the receiver input is 2xRCA. So, at some point I will need an adapter.

Questions:
1. Should I run most of the cable as a skinny 1/8"-type wire, and then split it out at the receiver? Or run most of it as 2xRCA and split it out at the PC?
2. Whichever wire you suggest, where can I get it cheap? I'm not an audiophile.

(As an aside, I tried coax by going 1/8" miniplug/female F adapter on the PC-->long coax-->female F/RCA adapter-->2xRCA splitter. I got the sound and a lot of hiss. I'm not even sure it was stereo. Not satisfactory results.)

(Also, I am aware of wireless solutions, but I understand they don't sound very good.)
 

Dave Poehlman

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2000
Messages
3,813
I'm not an audiophile.
I'll tell you what I did when I connected my rec-room system with my upstairs system so I could have the same music playing throughout the house for parties & milling about:
Since quality was not a big factor in this case I just went to Radio Shack and bought some 18 guage speaker wire and some rca jacks. I just ran the speaker wire (I had to do 2 runs.. one for the left and one for the right) and soldered on the RCA jacks. Since the speaker wire was not sheilded I tried to avoid running parallel to any electrical wiring/conduit to minimize interferrence.
The total run for me was probably 40'. There was a tiny 60Hz buzz from electrical interferrence but only audible when there was no music and the volume was cranked pretty high.
The total cost was probably under $20. As far as the switch to 1/8".. I would get one of those adapters and split it to RCA at the PC. Soldering a 1/8" plug onto speaker wire would be tricky.
 

sam_canavo

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 11, 2002
Messages
69
I have my pc connected to the stereo and split it about 5ft
from the pc and the rest rca. Run is about 40ft no problem
just slight electrical but not very noticiable and very cheap.
 

Stephen Hopkins

HW Reviewer
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2002
Messages
2,604
Go to Rat Shack and pick up a stereo male RCA to mini-jack cable (around $3) and a female to male mini jack cable for the length of the run (around $10 or $15). I've run this around 30ft with no problems, around an air conditioner and bunched up with other wires, with no audible signal degradation.

Hope this helps.
 

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