Asking for thoughts on a setup

[julitoole]

Hey community,
I play my audio from my windows machine which I have hooked up to a Topping dx5.
From this I power 3 devices over RCA. ( and one pair of near field monitors over XLR)
I do this by just getting RCA Y Cables and hooking it up.
I knew this wasnt a good way to do it as it may introduce noise form all the devices hooked up. ( feel free to correct me on this or anything I write as I would not consider myself to really understand it)
And adding insult to injury I added excessive lengths (combined probably 45 meters per channel) of RCA on it.
I was concerened that so much wire and 3 devices could drive up impedance that the Topping DX 5 would have to handle and might damage it or interfere with sound quality.
Now I thought its time to find a better but budget solution to this problem.

Maybe I dont have the right words to search for what I am looking and maybe its a stupid thing to do and someone will correct me to do something way smarter.
I searched for a device that takes the RCA signal and just duplicates (or truplicates in this case) the signal without giving the source devices all this impedance and stuff.
I only found the XZD-A1 from TILEAR which seems to do what I want.
Now the question is.
Is this a stupid thing to do and will introduce more problems than it is ought to solve?
Has somebody had this device or knows of any review that actually tests the performance?
Does somebody have a better device or way to do it?
Was my concern maybe even unfounded and I went to solve a non existing problem?


Happy to hear your answers and question and thanks in advance for reading and caring.

PS: for those who are interested the 3 devices are a Stereo Receiver (Yamaha rs 202d) a Subwoofer (Adam Audio t10) and an Amplifier (Fosi bt20a pro) and planning on adding a 4. device in another room

 

[DVDdoug]

I think you are OK, especially since you didn't mention any sound problems.

I do this by just getting RCA Y Cables and hooking it up.
I knew this wasnt a good way to do it as it may introduce noise form all the devices hooked up. ( feel free to correct me on this or anything I write as I would not consider myself to really understand it)

The Y-splitters and multiple "loads" shouldn't be a problem. Line inputs usually have MUCH higher impedance that line-outputs so it's not bad like connecting a bunch of speakers to one amplifier.

Note: You should NEVER use a Y-adapter to directly-connect multiple OUTPUTS together. It's OK as a splitter but not as a mixer.

With all of the ground connections you could get ground-loop hum but you would have said so.

And adding insult to injury I added excessive lengths (combined probably 45 meters per channel) of RCA on it.
I was concerened that so much wire

Cable has a certain capacitance per-foot and that would apply in series-length (obviously) but also in parallel where capacitance sums-up. Capacitance has capacitive reactance (Ohms) which is inversely proportional to capacitance. Together with the output impedance (the Topping in this case) it makes a Low Pass Filter (which can reduce the highs). Normally, it's happening in the MHz range where it has no effect on audio. But you might be "pushing it" at 45 meters.

The length can also contribute to ground loops if you've got grounds in different rooms, etc.

and 3 devices could drive up impedance that the Topping DX 5 would have to handle and might damage it or interfere with sound quality.

Impedance (or resistance) in parallel brings the impedance down. i.e If you connect two 8-Ohm speakers to an amplifier, that's 4-Ohms. That can be a bad thing but with line-level signals you could probably connect 10 or more things before you get any problems. Power amplifiers can be blown if the load impedance is too low but usually line outputs can be shorted (zero Ohms) without damage. I wouldn't recommend it, but if the impedance is too low on a line output you are more likely to temporarily "damage" the sound than permanently damage the hardware.

 

[julitoole]

Hey,
thanks a lot for the thoughts and reliefing my concerns.
I had some Audio issues (noise) but only really audible when the source was on low volume and rather the amplification in the other room turned up.
But that is frankly not a surprise I guess espceially given the setup.
Main concern was the health of the topping DX 5 (sry didnt mention DAC and HP AMP) which I dont wanna damage bc its where I use my Heapdhones and my near field monitors, on the other devices prestine sound quality is not the main concern.

Is there any benefit in your view in using the device?
of course it gives me the possibility to turn up volume in a different place and individually but disregarding that is there actually any benefit like electronicly would it actualy help with reducing ground loop if there were any?
I mean I am buying reasonable cables for the devices and could porbably bring that cable length down to 20m so it wont be as severe anyway and is at the moment not really an issue but I am curious on that.
Are so devices know to rather introduce noise while "reproducing"/duplicating the signal?

Thanks again

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

@DVDdoug did a great job of explaining the technicalities, so I’ll only add that I’ve had no issues with long unbalanced runs in the past. Not as long as yours though, I think about 35 meters has been the longest I’ve done.

IMO the thing that “makes” instead of “breaks” with long unbalanced runs is using cable with a top-notch shield. Installation-grade pro-audio mic cable like West Penn 451 is a great choice, although any name-brand cable with a foil shield will work. The only downside is having to terminate the RCA ends yourself.

I’m really surprised the Yamaha 202 doesn’t have a subwoofer connection – I think some of their other two-channel offerings do. If so, swapping out to one of those could eliminate one cable run.

The active splitter box on the surface seems like a good idea, but I’m always suspicious of devices like that when they don’t publish any specifications. Who knows, it could have a high noise floor and / or THD artifacts, not be flat 20 Hz – 20 kHz, etc. Or, it could be audiophile quality. Point is, there’s no way to know what you’d be getting.

All that to say, if you aren’t having any audible issues with your setup the way it is now, I wouldn’t be concerned. Just carry on and enjoy your system!


Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt