So, I just hooked up my new amplifier/reciever a couple of nights ago (RX-V750 - love it, by the way - simple, great product)

I wanted to hook up some of the digital components. After asking a couple of questions re: optical vs. digital coax cable, I was steered to Partsexpress and bought a couple of Toslink optical cables (<4.00 each for three 6 foot lengths). Well, I went to hook up my digital cable box, and low and behold, there's no optical hookup.

Damn! Now I have to go and buy a stupid digital coax cable (at around $30) to hook this up, right? WRONG!

I read on several web forums yesterday that you could hook up regular, heavy duty RCA cable, and the digital signal will pass just fine. The only consideration was long lengths of poorly shielded cable. But, the bottom line was, so long as any signal was comign through, the whole signal was coming through. Since the cable box is literally one foot from the receiver, I used an older (but well shielded), common RCA plug (I think it was red, for the record).

What do you know - I flipped up to HBO, a digital station on my box, and whammo - Bob's your uncle - digital signal coming through. Not only did the Yammy recognize the signal as digital, it recognized the signal as being a full 5.1 encoded signal! IMagine my delight when I discovered that not only did I save $30, but that the digital signal was a full, 5.1 encoded signal.

Then, I heard the same was true for component video cable that regular old RCA cable will work to hook up the signals. I tried it, and the same result - really great quality picture with spindly little r-w-y rca hookups. I was pissed that I dropped nearly $90 on component cables.

I guess the lesson learned is - don't believe the hype. Don't line the pockets of the cable wire fat-cats who take regular RCA cable, "un-double" it from a normal two wire strand, place an orange terminal on the end (instead of red, white or yellow) jack up the price 5 times, and then sell it to you as digital.....those bastards.

Just thought I woudl share with any of you guys who have the digital hookups but were unwilling to drop the cash to upgrade - there is no need. In fact, if you do the math, you can actually save money by going digital - since it only requires one line, each R-Y RCA you have is actually TWO digital cables. Go figure.

Anyway - happy listening.

Good news, Capn!

Glad you were able to discover firsthand that a simple works just fine for digital coax. Terminology can create a mental block making you think you need special equipment -- much to cable manufacturers' delight!

How come this isn't more widely known - or was I the only one in the dark?

I've helped a few friends set up their home theaters - and insisted in each instance that they spring for digital coaxial cables and component video cables, thinking they were different...I don't know if I'm going to share this information with them now, after they've already "invested" in the cables now.

You got it, Adrien. This has been mentioned a couple times around here, i.e. that wire is wire and except where interference is unusually heavy or for a very long digital signal run(e.g. more than 1/4 of the wavelength of the signal)nothing special is really needed.

A heroic demonstration of this truth was performed here by Mick Loney. Inspired by Mick's analysis of metallic conductors, I determined to examine the usefulness of certain non-metallic substances. Taking several strands of spaghetti(San Giorgio), I soaked them in hot salt water until they were thoroughly saturated, then attached RCA plugs to each end and connected them to my system. It worked, but the sound quality was definitely "grainy".

Thanks for the responses. I apologize to those who already knew of this fact - maybe I was just being dense about something that was obvious everybody else.

In any event - it's not a bad idea to mention once ina while to mention these little tidbits and save people money to buys speakers and other things that will actually affect the sound...

Glad I find out in time...and that experiment is unbelievable.

Hello Capn,

I've always had a feeling you could use RCA cables in place of digital cables but never tried it until last night. Had great results. Much improved sound on both the DVD and CD equipment. It only makes sense, center conductor with a shield, why not.

Thanks for the post,

Jim

Glad I could help.

nearly any rca cable will work for a digital coaxial connection i believe. there is potentially a problem with using red/white/yellow a/v cables for component video. especially with a long run of cable, an impedance mismatch could occur with lower quality a/v cables because sometimes the audio terminations(red/white)of the cables are not close enough to the 75 ohms. if you get enough of a mismatch then reflection of the signal can cause some distortion in the picture (i think this would cause a kind of "ghosted" image where thers a faint image next to the real one, the same thing that can happen in the cable tv signal on some channels). component video cables are usually especially careful about getting closer to the 75 ohms to make sure there is no impedance mismatch. if you see no distortion in the picture though, theres surely nothing to worry about.

Thats exacty what I did.All my connections are just plain rca to rca even the sub cable.Bought the whole lot from a shop for around $20.00.They were discounted %75 off as they were getting rid of the line and going with Monster Cable.

Moron? What are you talking about? Please tell me that you're joking, Mr. TechPro. Please, so that we don't have to fight about this.