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Any experience with Y-interconnects?

Question for those in the know/with experience....
I'm considering buying an Ayon CD-5. This unit is a top notch redbook CD player with a built in preamplifier. I use a JL Fathom F-112 subwoofer, a powered unit that runs off a preamp out jack. Problem is, the CD-5 has only ONE output jack. If I dump my EAR 868 preamp to buy the CD-5, hooking up to both my power amp and the JL becomes a big problem. I use monitors in a big room, so the JL is a must. It's been suggested that I use a Y-interconnect off the single CD-5 output and run one set of leads to the JL and the other to the power amp. Any thoughts on this? Need to make a choice....
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Showing 2 responses by almarg

almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Two points:

1)It looks like the Ayon has both rca and xlr outputs, with a switch to select which one is used (so apparently you cannot use both simultaneously). I assume you'll want to use the xlr outputs, since your Rowland amp and the sub both have balanced inputs. XLR y-adapter cables are readily available, including some inexpensive pro-oriented ones at B&H Photo Video.

2)If your cables are particularly long, they should be chosen to have low capacitance. The capacitances of BOTH the cable to the sub and the cable to the power amp will affect the signal going to the power amp. If the total of those capacitances is too high, a slight upper treble rolloff may be introduced into the signal going to the power amp, due to interaction of that total capacitance with the Ayon's output impedance (which is specified as 300 ohms, not extremely high but not negligible either). That will be true for balanced cabling as well as unbalanced cabling.

Regards,
-- Al
almarg's avatar
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
Hi Ozzy,

No problem at all in your situation. My statement about the capacitance of the cable to the sub affecting the signal to the main power amp applies only to the situation where either a y-adapter is used off of a single output of the preamp, or the two cables are connected to two output jacks on the preamp that are connected together internally within the preamp.

The XP10, as you indicated, has separate buffers for the xlr and rca outputs, which means that there are separate driver stages for each set of outputs. That eliminates the possibility of interaction of the sub cable with the signal to the main power amp.

Also, I note that the XP10 has an output impedance of 200 ohms unbalanced, and 1000 ohms on each leg of the balanced output. While the 1000 ohms is somewhat high, that is still most likely low enough to avoid perceivable treble rolloff for a cable length of 10 feet. If the cable capacitance is EXTREMELY high, say 150 picofarads (pf) per foot, you might get an attenuation at 20kHz in the vicinity of 1db, which I think would be imperceptible to just about all of us. For more typical cable capacitances, there would be no effect whatsoever.

The 20 foot length to the sub benefits from the lower 200 ohm unbalanced output impedance, and upper treble rolloff doesn't matter anyway on the signal to the sub. So you are doubly ok there.

Bottom line: No problem!

Regards,
-- Al
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