georgefury1

I work at a bar and I need to figure out a way to run my trivia guys equipment back to the amps in my office. Right now He is using a small amp and two speakers. It sounds terrible and can not be heard all over the bar. He is using a lap top for His music and power point on the projector. Would it be possible to run RCAs from his laptop around 50-70 feet back to the amps?
Being that I am trying to do this on the cheap, I thought I could run a heavy guage speaker cable and soldier RCAs on one end, and a 1/8 in on the other. Will the signal distort at that kind of distance? Any advise would be helpfull. Thanks in adance!

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Yes, you can do it.

I don't suggest speaker cable for long runs of unbalanced low level signals. You want a shielded cable. The signal isn't going to "distort" (much), but a long length of unshielded, untwisted cable will pick up a lot of interference, and a non-differential input will convert this into noise.

Personally, I'd use Belden 9451, though unfortunately it's hard to find outside of specialty audio shops.

Buy one of these: 35FT 3.5mm Stereo Male to 2RCA Male 22AWG Cable ($6.40)
and one of these: 50FT 3.5mm Stereo Male to 3.5mm Stereo Female 22AWG Extension Cable ($8.26)


That's 1/8" male on one end to two male RCA on the other, total of 85 feet in length, for $14.66. Other lengths are also available: Audio Cables


You may run into hum due to differences in ground potential between the amps and the laptop. If this happens, use an isolation transformer: http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2062214

y8s

iTrader: (8)

in a pinch you could use bulk shielded cat5.