General connections question (1 Viewer)

[Jason GT]

I don't know if this has been asked or answered, and it does not appear to be covered in the basic faq/primer.

So -

is there any inherent drawback in using a random RCA interconnect as digital coax (SPDIF)?

I understand that digital coax is supoosed to be 75 ohm cable, but what happens if the cable isn't?

 

[Bob McElfresh]

It wont hurt anything and it will appear to work.

But people who have used a RCA cable with the wrong impedence have noticed audio drop-outs. One person had this problem with a brand new system and the sound dropped out every 3-4 minutes - just for a second. He was about to return the setup until we traced it to the coaxial-digital cable.

Someone else noticed a drop-out about once every 15 minutes. It was not enough to worry about untill one day he was behind his rack and noticed the cable had RED RCA plugs, not yellow. He switched the cable an only then remembered about the drop out issue.

Since video cables are cheap/easy to find it's almost silly to not use the proper cable.