XLR Y Cable

[Tommy]

Hi!

I'm trying to figure out if it would be a problem / loss of quality if I use an XLR Y cable. It would be to split the signal from my Schiit Modius DAC to my Schiit Freya and a Schiit Magnius.
The Freya and the Magnius wouldn't be on at the same time.

Would it work without signal degradation, or do I need a separate splitter for the balanced XLR signal?

 

[Killingbeans]

Modius: 75 ohm output impedance, Freya: 10K input impedance, Magnius: 50K input impedance.

I would say it shouldn't be a problem. But it's not really something I have much experience with, so I'd wait for some more opinions

 

[sergeauckland]

It will work fine. Based on Killingbeans's numbers above, the combined load of the Freya and Magnius is 8.3k so it won't bother the Modius one little bit.

S.

 

[Tommy]

Fabolous! Thanks guys, looking forward to test my newly acquired Beyerdynamic Amiron on the Modius / Magnius as soon as it arrives

 

[Dambala]

Hi all, I don't want to distract from @Tommy's thread, but I have a similar question. I'm looking to do something similar with an XLR Y-Cable. In my case it would be from a Focal Arche and split the balanced output - have one cable going to my Focal CMS 50 (L/R) and the other going to my Focal CMS Sub L/R inputs. I know I can send everything to the sub and then to the speakers, but from a cabling perspective, this is more ideal.

Any loss of audio quality doing this?

Thanks in advance,
Eric

 

[waynel]

Hi all, I don't want to distract from @Tommy's thread, but I have a similar question. I'm looking to do something similar with an XLR Y-Cable. In my case it would be from a Focal Arche and split the balanced output - have one cable going to my Focal CMS 50 (L/R) and the other going to my Focal CMS Sub L/R inputs. I know I can send everything to the sub and then to the speakers, but from a cabling perspective, this is more ideal.

Any loss of audio quality doing this?

Thanks in advance,
Eric

Will be fine, be sure to set the high pass filter on the CMS 50's to correspond the the low pass filter on the sub, since you wouldn't be using the bass management in the sub. Why not go from the preamp to the sub and use the HPF outputs from the sub to the monitors?

 

[Dambala]

Excellent, thank you @waynel - Fortunately I have that set now with my Emotiva PT-100 using the direct sub out.

 

[waynel]

Excellent, thank you @waynel - Fortunately I have that set now with my Emotiva PT-100 using the direct sub out.

Why not go from the preamp to the sub and use the HPF outputs from the sub to the monitors?

 

[Dambala]

I can absolutely do that and it's my backup plan. Just trying to avoid running a bunch of cables back and forth as my speakers are on my desktop and the sub is off to the side.

What about this for a side track - could I merge the left/right from the Y to run just one cable to the sub? I read that summing it through a cable is a really bad idea, but would love to hear your thoughts. This would then reduce my cable by 1 but would add another Y to merge back for the sub out.

 

[waynel]

I can absolutely do that and it's my backup plan. Just trying to avoid running a bunch of cables back and forth as my speakers are on my desktop and the sub is off to the side.

What about this for a side track - could I merge the left/right from the Y to run just one cable to the sub? I read that summing it through a cable is a really bad idea, but would love to hear your thoughts. This would then reduce my cable by 1 but would add another Y to merge back for the sub out.

I checked the manuals and the CMS sub applies no HPF to the outputs so the HPF in the monitors should be used anyway so a y-cable will be the same or better than running first to the sub then back to monitors*. (* for your particular case)

 

[Dambala]

Thank you Wayne for looking up the details, I tried to extract that from the manuals myself but my brain starts hurting.

Cheers!