ne_surfer

My VCR has single L/R channel audio outputs (RCA plug type) that I want to connect to the audio inputs of both my TV and Receiver. I don't want to connect them in series, because I don't want to be required to have my Receiver turned on to run the VCR. Can I split the audio cables with a "Y" adapter to two different components: the TV and Receiver? Or is there an 2 channel audio switch box available. Another solution? I don't want to loose audio quality (HiFi CD quality from the VCR).

Hmm ... jitter is where data edges do not precisely match clock edges and move somewhat randomly relatively to the clock. The way you dela with it is to buffer and reclock to incoming data, which I presume the reciever does. (I'm not sure if the receiver extracts a clock from the coax/optical bit stream or uses its internal clock, but the frequency is exactly defined so that an internal clock would be fine.) The A/V receiver does some digital signal processing before sending the data to the D/A. By this time the data is exactly clocked and corresponds exactly (except for the processing) with the bit stream extracted from the cd player (after error correction). Due to buffering at each stage, the data has been delayed from when it was read from the CD to when its is fed into the D/A. But the smapling rate is exactly the same, the data is clocked precisely, there is no jitter at the D/A (any jitter over the coax/optical cable has had no effect, except to delay the data stream). Regarding the advantages of digital interconnects: digital signals have a very high noise immunity relative to analog. In fact, noise has no effect until information is completely lost. That is, up to a certain point noise has no effect. Then a one bit is misread as a zero, or vice versa, a complete corruption. But - here's the important thing - you will never see so much noise on a coax/optical cable that you with cross the noise immunity threshold. So you will not have errors that require error correction logic to insert fill into the data stream. On the other hand analog signals are degraded to some degree by any noise, the more noise, the more distortion. And the distortion adds up as each stage of processing adds its own noise and inaccuracies (the final stage, the speaker, is the most distorting, that's why you need to use Klipsch). The advantage of digital signals is that you use the very high noise immunity and make sure that you keep well below that threshold, and you get perfect signal processing. You don'y actually have an analog signal until the D/A stage just before the amplifier in the receiver. (There will be some inaccuracies during the mathematical calculations/transformations of the digital data, because of the limited precision of the data. A CD is 16 bit data, my Marantz uses soemthing like 96 bit precision internally.)

My Pioneer DVD payer has both optical & coax, I choose optical (toslink) because it electrically decouples the dvd player from my receiver (for whatever that worth). But the optical cable (AR) was more expensive than the AR coax. I did see a cheaper optical cable at Best Buy for $14, but didn't go for it, because I didn't know if my 2 year old pioneer dvd player would still pump out light, wanted to give it the best chance. Now my point: since we're dealing with a digital signal here, either coax or optical will work the same. Furthermore, the cheapest cable will work the same as the most expensive (monster at $60, for example). Either the 1's and 0's of digital are there, or they are not. Either the signal is perfect, or its corrupt. But its not the same as an analog signal, which can be partially degraded by noise, poor interconnect cable quality, etc. So go buy the cheapest coax! Another point: speaker wire. As long as you use a sufficient guage, say 16, and real copper, then you can't improve the signal (and sound). But the cheapest wire. Copper is copper. I would say forget about capacitive/inductive effects, which are frequency dependent (more pronounced at higher frequencies). The speaker itself will present a far more capacitive/inductive load, and any such effects in the wire will be negligible. As long as you use a sufficient guage (16 - 18), you can not do better. Forget monster, forget speaker wire as a transmission line (the frequencies are too low < 20khz). Any use digital interconnects whenever possible.

If you have an A/V receiver the signal processing is done digitally. You definitely want to feed the signal from your CD player into the receiver digitally, either digital optical or cable. Otherwise you would do extra D/A and A/D conversions. Since you enter the receiver digitally, there is no penalty in audio quality for the digital signal processing before the D/A conversion, which is nice to know when turning on ProLogic II, etc.

I did find a lot of info on wiring up the RP-3's by searching the forum, as well as a lot of other good interesting info. One additinal question: Could I turn off my RP-3 powered subs and add a separate powered sub (say the ksw-10) to my system, and get an equivalent quality sound? I'm thinking that I have a problem with speaker placement in my small apartment, and I might want to spend the extra money to improve the base by being free to place a separate sub. How does an RP-3 w/o the sub powered compare to a RF-3, which has the two larger mid-bass speakers as opposed to the one small mid-bass in the RP-3. Is an RF-3 equivalent to an RP-3 w/o power to the subs?

Just purchased pair of RP-3's at clearance and bi-wired them to a Marantz 7200. A few questions ... - Why are the RP-3's being discontinued? - Should I connect the RP-3 subwoofer's to a sub out of my receiver or is the main channels biwire connection ok? - I have a small room to put my speakers in and cannot place them in many locations. I have each subwoofer angled 45 degrees from but only 6 inches from a wall. Seems ok but I seems to hear some booming. The speakers a mid-room. OK arrangement? - I found that I needed to plug the speakers in on the same power strip as my receiver, or I get a "thump" when I power down the receiver. Seems like an obvious thing, but the manual does not suggest this. - Why can the RF-3 (a close kin of the RP-3) handle so much more continuous power and the RP-3? - Is the KSW-10 sub the same as the built-in sub of the RP-3. If not, how much better is the KSW-10? What are the differences? - Should I have bought the Bose 701's for the same money instead? (just kidding, really). - I used 16 guage AR speaker cable at 20' lengths, biwire. Is this adequate? (BTW, I looked at monster cable, but they do not say what the wire guage is on their labels, and their cable seems light. When I buy cable, I want to lift it and feel the weight of the copper. How can monster be so light and yet preminum? Yes, the wires are farther apart than usual). - Is there a break-in period for the RP-3's (read in various forums)? What can I expect after the break-in and do I need to do something special? - How durable should I expect the sub electronics to be? I was hesitant to get a powered tower because of possible reliability issues. I want my RP-3's to go for years hopefully. Guess the same reliability issue would be there for a separate sub. - BTW, I was impressed with the RP-3's performance at low volumes, since I am in an apartment and cannot crank them up. All the detail and dynamic range was there at low volumes.