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    Can cable TV splitters be used for audio distribution

    I was hoping that some of you more technical guys out there could help me out with this question.

    I was a cable installer many years ago and I have a large amount of RG11 cable, and splitters left over that have just been taking up space in my basement and I have been looking at using them for whole home audio distribution. Will I be able to use the cable TV splitters to sent Audio signal to the other tuners that I am installing in other rooms of my home

    Cheers Ken
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    #2
    Not sure how you are trying to distribute your audio. For S/PDIF the splitters do work. I know from experience, and lots of it.

    If you mean to use it as regular speaker wire...... I can't help there. I'm not sure how this would even work.
    Originally posted by rprade
    There is no rhyme or reason to the anarchy a defective Z-Wave device can cause

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      #3
      I am looking at having one tuner output to other tuners in the house so each room has a tuner with speakers connected and the have one main control unit feed all the others will this work

      Cheers Ken
      HSPRO,HS3PRO, BLsecurity, , MCSxap, HSTouch Android, UltraGCIR, CM15a, USBUIRT, BLUSBUIRT, WIFIRGB, BLAB8SS, BLcontrol, BLGData, BLLAN,BLOccupied, BLRadar, BLVolume, iTunesDAAP, UltraGCIR3, Airplayspeak, BLalarm, BLbackup, BLLED, BLrandom, BLReminders, BLRF, BL Speech, Hyperion, IFTTT, KINECT, XBMC, MCSprinkers PRO, PHLocation, ULtrapioneer, Ultralog, ultraweatherbug, Z,troller, GC-100, GC WIFICC, GC-WIFI SERIAL, Nitrogen logic depth camera controllers,

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        #4
        Yes. But how are you thinking of physically connecting these tuners? If it's COAX with RCA ends then you will do fine. You just turn it into an RCA cable. You will of course need twice the lingth of cable when compared to a cheap Monoprice RCA cable and you will have to fit RCA ends on.
        Originally posted by rprade
        There is no rhyme or reason to the anarchy a defective Z-Wave device can cause

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          #5
          That is exactly what I am thinking I have a ton of RCA ends for the RG11 cable and well over 1000 ft of cable so this should do nicely just wanted to be sure that I could pass the audio through the cable splitters
          HSPRO,HS3PRO, BLsecurity, , MCSxap, HSTouch Android, UltraGCIR, CM15a, USBUIRT, BLUSBUIRT, WIFIRGB, BLAB8SS, BLcontrol, BLGData, BLLAN,BLOccupied, BLRadar, BLVolume, iTunesDAAP, UltraGCIR3, Airplayspeak, BLalarm, BLbackup, BLLED, BLrandom, BLReminders, BLRF, BL Speech, Hyperion, IFTTT, KINECT, XBMC, MCSprinkers PRO, PHLocation, ULtrapioneer, Ultralog, ultraweatherbug, Z,troller, GC-100, GC WIFICC, GC-WIFI SERIAL, Nitrogen logic depth camera controllers,

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            #6
            If you want to split the Radio Frequencies to the various tuners, then yes, it will work.
            If you're looking to split the Audio Frequencies directly to speakers or audio inputs, then not likely at all. You may get some audio through them, but it certainly won't be effective. The transformers in splitters are resonant at high RF frequencies (hundreds of Megahertz). Audio is more like 20 to 20K hertz. As such, splitters are specifically designed to block low frequencies.
            Real courage is not securing your Wi-Fi network.

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              #7
              Ok here is my audio setup. Hs pc sound card is connected to the first receiver what i want to do is take the output from that reciever and split it out to other reciever in the house. So not splitting radio signal but the output from the first reciever

              Cheers ken
              HSPRO,HS3PRO, BLsecurity, , MCSxap, HSTouch Android, UltraGCIR, CM15a, USBUIRT, BLUSBUIRT, WIFIRGB, BLAB8SS, BLcontrol, BLGData, BLLAN,BLOccupied, BLRadar, BLVolume, iTunesDAAP, UltraGCIR3, Airplayspeak, BLalarm, BLbackup, BLLED, BLrandom, BLReminders, BLRF, BL Speech, Hyperion, IFTTT, KINECT, XBMC, MCSprinkers PRO, PHLocation, ULtrapioneer, Ultralog, ultraweatherbug, Z,troller, GC-100, GC WIFICC, GC-WIFI SERIAL, Nitrogen logic depth camera controllers,

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                #8
                What do you mean EXACTLY when you say "output"?

                You can't use it as speaker wire.
                could can use it as RCA cable.
                Originally posted by rprade
                There is no rhyme or reason to the anarchy a defective Z-Wave device can cause

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                  #9
                  There seems to be some vagueness in the answers. An RF splitter will NOT pass audio. They are all capacitively coupled and are band pass devices usually designed for 5-900Mhz with some of the newer ones going to several Ghz. They fall of very quickly below their lower threshold and will not pass anything from DC to 1mhz. They are only meant to pass RF. You can certainly use your RG6 to carry line level audio, it will work very well for that. Splitting one line level output (like a tape out or the output from your sound card) is a little more problematic, because of the relatively low impedance of the line level inputs would cause severe attenuation of the signal. If your sound card provided a speaker level output, you could deal with its higher level output with a resistive network, but even that would be problematic for a one to many split. The best solutions for that are active (amplified) devices like these amplified AV splitters here and here. You could just use the audio portion.

                  If you look at the labels on your CATV splitters, they will give you their designed bandwidth. The one pictured below will pass DC in one direction and some are designed to pass embedded IR signals as well, but NONE of them will pass audio.
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                    #10
                    Use an RCA "Y" cable instead of a splitter.
                    Something like this would work.

                    Steve Q


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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Steve Q View Post
                      Use an RCA "Y" cable instead of a splitter.
                      Something like this would work.

                      Steve Q


                      Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
                      For a one to two solution that would work with a slight attenuation. If you were going to drive more than two additional receivers you *might* run into problems, dependent upon the input impedance design of the receivers. The norm is 10k ohms with the line output at around 100k ohms. Two inputs wired together would present a 5k load - three would be 3.3k, etc. As they add up, they would definitely attenuate the level.
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                        #12
                        I have a large amount of RG11 cable
                        Here used that RG11 (assuming its that 4 wire phone wire) for my very first 1-wire stuff in the old house. It was mostly in place with that 6 wire stuff. At the time a pair of wires did plug in to an AC transformer that was utilized by phones at the time?

                        I ran extra RG-6 cable here originally running a quad shielded pair or two per room for TV stuff. I still do utilize it for HD stuff and today it is used for transport of voltage / IR stuff for IR blasters (well not the satellite cables though).

                        As stated above sans splitters for low line level or even speakers; you might get noise anyways. Today my in wall speakers are all 16 guage jacketed wires. You could just try to see what happens when you do this. The original Leviton Chopin digital volume controls were just that. In the 1980's did utilize zoned audio stuff with analog in wall potentiometers driven by high wattage amps. One day during a party and cranking the sound one analog pot did burn up in the wall. A guest did ask what the smoke was from at the time.

                        Today mostly using the catXX cable. Thinking back I did also utilize shielded microphone cable from the basement audio section to the second floor. It still was a bit noisy. Going to the catXX cable did work. Helped a friend with her business office. She did have a comm closet. In it we put the sound system in plus the computer stuff. I ran one catXX cable some 150 feet from one side of the office above the tiles adjacent (close to) the florescent lighting and used low line level cat5e baluns which worked well (still working today after some 3 years).
                        - Pete

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Pete View Post
                          Here used that RG11 (assuming its that 4 wire phone wire) for my very first 1-wire stuff in the old house.
                          Pete;

                          RG11 is similar to RG6 coax except it is quad shielded and has an attached steel messenger wire so that it can be suspended between poles and buildings. I also think it has slightly less internal capacitance for reduced line tilt on long runs.
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