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To clarify...a family member has a stereo on one side of a room, and TV/DVD/etc on the other (maybe 20-30 feet). He's going to need to run line level cables between them as to turn things into a "home theatre". The problem is, what type of cable do you use? Is the stuff normally used in interconnects sold in bulk, without connectors? Is that really needed?

Several years ago I did something like this for the stereo outs on a VCR. The local eletronic supply store had some 4 conductor cable with shielding. Two conductors were for signal, and the other two and the shield were ground. Seemed to work fine.

I'm not worried about wall plates and such - I can deal with that.

Also, what about digital? Any problems going from the digital out on the DVD player to the receiver over that long of a distance? Cable concerns?

Has anyone here done this?

Anyone?

Have you thought about running balanced lines? I seem to remember that signal loss (and degradation from RFI and the like) should be much less significant vs. an equivalent run of unbalanced wire.

You'd need some sort of transformer on either side of the line, though, to do the unbalanced --> balanced --> unbalanced thing, as I don't think home A/V equipment comes equipped with XLR connectors.

I think balanced lines are a bit beyond the scope of this project...

nt

Have you thought about using coax cable? I've never tried it, but I've heard it recommended before. It's pretty well shielded and readily available...but it might be too bulky for what you want. Of course, you'd need RCA to coax adaptors...I think they run about a buck and a half apiece.

nt

Ess Ay Cee Dee wrote:What kind of digital connection are you talking about, Toslink or coaxial?

Coax.

Coaxial would be easy--just about any decent quality 75-ohm cable will work, provided it terminates in RCA plugs.

I'm thinking anything I do would terminate at a wall plate with RCA jacks. Then I'd run short interconnects from there to the equipment.

This certainly looks tempting:

http://www.svideo.com/avbalun12.html

CAT5 would be great if it actually works well. I wouldn't even need to buy one of those boxes. But does it actually work well?

I suggest asking on rec.audio.tech, rec.audio.pro. , or avsforum.com