Thread: RCA - looping through amps, do you lose quality?

Originally Posted by kidcash

Hello,

I've been told if you have 2 amps for example, it's better to run a single pair of RCA's to each of them from the head unit rather than run one RCA to one AMP, then use that amps RCAoutput to run it to the second amp, i've been told that way you lose signal and quality.

Is this true?

Does the same go if you were to have one pair of RCA's and use a adaptor to split them into 2 pairs?

Thankyou.

Anytime you passively split or change a signal it will degrade, plain and simple. If the RCA Output on your amp is truly a passthrough of the other RCA input pairs, then it doesnt really matter. Only difference being there could be more EMI introduced into the trace that carries the input to the spare jacks by the amp then there would be outside the casing and a few more inches away.

Splitting it at the headunit or at the amp doesnt really matter. Only a few people can actually tell the difference in sound quality in these setups.

Try running a wire and split it and the amp and feed into each. If it sounds good to you then hooray. If not, then you have another cable to run.