I need to get audio from my sound card to my media closet. I have only
1 coaxial in the wall between the 2. My soundcard has line out and
SPDIF connectors. On the other end, I have only RCA-type left and right
input jacks (like on a standard receiver). My questions a

1) Can I carry the SPDIF signal on the coaxial and then use a converter
to make it an analog audio system passable to RCA jacks? If so, what
converter/adapters would I need?

2) Can I carrry the line-out signal on one coaxial? How would I do
that?

3) I know I can modulate the signal to carry it on the coaxial and
de-modulate to L&R RCA jacks on the other end. Will this result in poor
quality audio?

It seems to me that if a coaxial (like for TV) can carrry stereo audio
AND video, I certainly should be able to carry audio on one.

By coxial I mean standard cable used for carrying a TV signal. I am not
sure of the proper term.

Thanks

"Mike C" wrote in message
oups.com...
I need to get audio from my sound card to my media closet. I have only
1 coaxial in the wall between the 2. My soundcard has line out and
SPDIF connectors. On the other end, I have only RCA-type left and right
input jacks (like on a standard receiver). My questions a

1) Can I carry the SPDIF signal on the coaxial and then use a converter
to make it an analog audio system passable to RCA jacks? If so, what
converter/adapters would I need?

Maybe. I'm not familiar with S/PDIF, but it apparently does travel on a
single coaxial cable.

2) Can I carry the line-out signal on one coaxial? How would I do
that?

No.

3) I know I can modulate the signal to carry it on the coaxial and
de-modulate to L&R RCA jacks on the other end. Will this result in poor
quality audio?

With something like an FM modulator and then an FM tuner on the other end?
That would work, and of course it will cost you some quality, but the drop
may be acceptable; it need not be any worse than FM broadcasting.

It seems to me that if a coaxial (like for TV) can carrry stereo audio
AND video, I certainly should be able to carry audio on one.

By coxial I mean standard cable used for carrying a TV signal. I am not
sure of the proper term.

It does something analogous to your (3) but with multiple frequencies
(channels) at once.

"Mike C" wrote in message
oups.com...
I need to get audio from my sound card to my media closet. I have only
1 coaxial in the wall between the 2.


Not to overlook the obvious, could you pull a new pair of cables by using
the existing coax to pull with?

Mike C wrote:
I need to get audio from my sound card to my media closet. I have only
1 coaxial in the wall between the 2. My soundcard has line out and
SPDIF connectors. On the other end, I have only RCA-type left and right
input jacks (like on a standard receiver). My questions a

1) Can I carry the SPDIF signal on the coaxial and then use a converter
to make it an analog audio system passable to RCA jacks? If so, what
converter/adapters would I need?

Yes.

I have an older (3 or 4 years) SoundBlaster Audigy that has coaxial
S/PDIF input (as well as USB and optical) and 5.1 output. This would
work for converting your digital signal to stereo audio; you'd just need
a stereo-headphone-to-RCA cable. I got my Audigy on eBay for $75.

2) Can I carrry the line-out signal on one coaxial? How would I do
that?

You could, but only a mono signal.

3) I know I can modulate the signal to carry it on the coaxial and
de-modulate to L&R RCA jacks on the other end. Will this result in poor
quality audio?

Depends on the type of modulation you use and the quality of the modulator.


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On your point of using a Soundblaster Audigy to convert from S/PDIF
digital to stereo audio, the problem is I don't have a computer at the
destination. The PC (and S/PDIF output) are at the other end. I need
some kind of stand alone converter.

"Mike C" wrote ...
On your point of using a Soundblaster Audigy to convert from S/PDIF
digital to stereo audio, the problem is I don't have a computer at the
destination. The PC (and S/PDIF output) are at the other end. I need
some kind of stand alone converter.

Radio Shack sells one (quite inexpensive, too), but their
new website makes it impossible to find anything anymore.
It is the most useless website they have ever had.

On 25 Dec 2005 10:33:06 -0800, "Mike C"
wrote:

I need to get audio from my sound card to my media closet. I have only
1 coaxial in the wall between the 2. My soundcard has line out and
SPDIF connectors. On the other end, I have only RCA-type left and right
input jacks (like on a standard receiver). My questions a

1) Can I carry the SPDIF signal on the coaxial and then use a converter
to make it an analog audio system passable to RCA jacks? If so, what
converter/adapters would I need?

The coax cable may not be ideal spec for carrying SPDIF, but if not
too long it will probably work. You'll need a DA converter at the
other end. Something like this:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...gCow-main.html
I'm sure someone will suggest a cheaper alternative. After all, the
crappiest SoundBlaster card includes DA and AD conversion! It isn't
expensive.

You may already have equipment that will do the conversion. I can
choose between a Minidisk and a DAT machine.

As analogue, the single cable will carry a single channel. There is
no point in considering RF modulation.

"Mike C" wrote in message
oups.com
On your point of using a Soundblaster Audigy to convert
from S/PDIF digital to stereo audio, the problem is I
don't have a computer at the destination. The PC (and
S/PDIF output) are at the other end. I need some kind of
stand alone converter.

The other end needs to be a standard audio DAC, which are readily available
as stand-alone devices.

If you also need a power amp at the other end, then just get both the DAC
and the amplifier in one box called a standard "Surround Receiver".

What I am trying to do is pipe mp3s from a PC into my whole house audio
system. I had a PC in my media closet for this purpose, but it died. I
figured it is better/cheaper to use my existing PC rather than buy a
new one an maintain that for the sole purpose of playing mp3s (I also
have a stand-alone DAR, but prefer the PC for control reasons). The
point being, if I have ot buy an epensive DA Converter, I might as
well buy a cheap PC ($299 PC will work- I already have na external
sound card).

I can't pull a new coaxial, but I may be able to use an existing one
one level below. By pulling that up a level, I would have 2 coaxials to
send the audio signal to the media closet. That will require drilling
2x on the outside of my house, which I was trying to avoid.

I guess the lesson is, no matter how carefully you plan and run cables,
there is something else you'll want. Next time, I would run 3 coaxial
to every room. I currently have 1 coaxial, 1 CAT 5, 1 CAT 3 and speaker
wire to every room. The extra coaxial would allow audio signals (or
video) to be sent to the hub.

Mike C wrote:
point being, if I have ot buy an epensive DA Converter, I might as
well buy a cheap PC

That's pretty much the state of the industry, I'm afraid. Used PCs are a
glut on the market and new ones are massively mass marketed; their price
reflects that.

The coax isn't your only option, of course. There are networked audio
appliances, mostly wireless; you could use one of those. Or there are
wireless a/v transmitter/reciever pairs.

One problem with wiring your main PC as your audio server is that if you
want to reboot or otherwise do something compute-intensive you may lose
playback continuity. Also, you have to walk over to the PC to select the
tracks for playing. For that reason, I would go back to your earlier
solution of a machine dedicated to the stereo... optionally networked so
you could control or work on it remotely (I'm using TightVNC for that
purpose) and/or easily push new audio files to it.

($299 PC will work- I already have na external sound card).

You can probably bring that down to $50 if you're willing to shop around
for an older box someone is retiring.

That will require drilling
2x on the outside of my house, which I was trying to avoid.

It's almost always possible to route wires without drilling to outside,
using snake-like flexible drill shafts, and/or by routing wires through
attic and basement. Don't be mislead by Telco's sloppy practices!

(Of course the flex-shaft bits cost some money themselves, but that's an
investment in tooling. Home Depot had 'em, last I looked.)

"Mike C" wrote ...
I guess the lesson is, no matter how carefully you plan and run
cables,
there is something else you'll want. Next time, I would run 3 coaxial
to every room. I currently have 1 coaxial, 1 CAT 5, 1 CAT 3 and
speaker
wire to every room. The extra coaxial would allow audio signals (or
video) to be sent to the hub.

So why not send your stereo line-level audio over the CAT3
or CAT5 cable?

"Next time" consider just putting in some cheap plastic pipe
from the wall boxes to the attic (or basement, etc.) That will
allow you to pull in any kind of cable, fibre, etc. Both more
flexible AND cheaper than pulling in a bunch of wires on
speculation.
that comes along in the future.

So why not send your stereo line-level audio over the CAT3
or CAT5 cable?

Good point, actually. Those are twisted pairs; they should be able to
carry line-level signals pretty reasonably.

"Next time" consider just putting in some cheap plastic pipe
from the wall boxes to the attic (or basement, etc.) That will
allow you to pull in any kind of cable, fibre, etc. Both more
flexible AND cheaper than pulling in a bunch of wires on
speculation.

Also, consider running at least one large pipe from basement straight to
attic. Generally, rooms in a 2-story house are easily wired from one to
the other, and the problem is getting a good connection between those
two sets.

Mike C wrote:
On your point of using a Soundblaster Audigy to convert from S/PDIF
digital to stereo audio, the problem is I don't have a computer at the
destination. The PC (and S/PDIF output) are at the other end. I need
some kind of stand alone converter.

Sorry, not Audigy... Extigy (the external version of the Audigy card).
It will work standalone and even includes an IR remote.




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"Mike C" writes:

I need to get audio from my sound card to my media closet. I have only
1 coaxial in the wall between the 2. My soundcard has line out and
SPDIF connectors. On the other end, I have only RCA-type left and right
input jacks (like on a standard receiver). My questions a

1) Can I carry the SPDIF signal on the coaxial and then use a converter
to make it an analog audio system passable to RCA jacks?

Yes.

If so, what converter/adapters would I need?

You need an extern D/A converter that connects to the SPDIF interface.
There are external boxes that can do this. And practically
all modern home theater amplifiers have this kind of feature
built-in (S/PDIF input in them).

2) Can I carrry the line-out signal on one coaxial? How would I do
that?

You can only carry one audio signal through one coaxial cable.

3) I know I can modulate the signal to carry it on the coaxial and
de-modulate to L&R RCA jacks on the other end. Will this result in poor
quality audio?

If you do it with very expensive equipment, you can do this
at good quality. If the equipment needs to be reasonably cheap,
then you need to accept noticeable quality loss..
One possible solution for stereo signal to one coaxial is to
use stereo FM modulator and normal FM stereo radio on other end,
this gives you "FM radio" sound quality.

There are also other kind of modulators and demodulators..
But those are normally special application devices, and are
expensive (not mass produced for consumer markets).

It seems to me that if a coaxial (like for TV) can carrry stereo audio
AND video, I certainly should be able to carry audio on one.

By coxial I mean standard cable used for carrying a TV signal. I am not
sure of the proper term.

Thanks


--
Tomi Engdahl (http://www.iki.fi/then/)
Take a look at my electronics web links and documents at
http://www.epanorama.net/

Laurence Payne writes:

On 25 Dec 2005 10:33:06 -0800, "Mike C"
wrote:

I need to get audio from my sound card to my media closet. I have only
1 coaxial in the wall between the 2. My soundcard has line out and
SPDIF connectors. On the other end, I have only RCA-type left and right
input jacks (like on a standard receiver). My questions a

1) Can I carry the SPDIF signal on the coaxial and then use a converter
to make it an analog audio system passable to RCA jacks? If so, what
converter/adapters would I need?

The coax cable may not be ideal spec for carrying SPDIF,

A 75 ohm coaxial cable is the cable type that the SPDIF system
has been originally designed to work with.
The TV antenna wiring coaxial cable is 75 ohm coaxial cable.

but if not too long it will probably work.

yes.

You'll need a DA converter at the
other end. Something like this:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...gCow-main.html
I'm sure someone will suggest a cheaper alternative. After all, the
crappiest SoundBlaster card includes DA and AD conversion! It isn't
expensive.

You may already have equipment that will do the conversion. I can
choose between a Minidisk and a DAT machine.

As analogue, the single cable will carry a single channel. There is
no point in considering RF modulation.

--
Tomi Engdahl (http://www.iki.fi/then/)
Take a look at my electronics web links and documents at
http://www.epanorama.net/

"Tomi Holger Engdahl" wrote in message
...

3) I know I can modulate the signal to carry it on the coaxial and
de-modulate to L&R RCA jacks on the other end. Will this result in poor
quality audio?

If you do it with very expensive equipment, you can do this
at good quality. If the equipment needs to be reasonably cheap,
then you need to accept noticeable quality loss..

He did mention that he is piping MP3s around he house, so presumably he is
not concerned about quality loss ;-)


geoff

Geoff@home wrote:
He did mention that he is piping MP3s around the house,
so presumably he is not concerned about quality loss ;-)

Not paranoid/audiophool level of concern, anyway.

Most of my own informal playback is from high-rate MP3's these days.
It's Plenty Good Enough for background music. Not good enough for
mastering or detailed analysis, but y'know, most of the time I'm not
putting that much attention on the music; it's background, and as long
as the artifacts aren't obvious at that level I honestly don't care.

If it doesn't matter, it does not matter.