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RCA Cables

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  • January 12, 2015 at 9:11 am #2119331
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    Hi John,

    First of all. You are using good monitor speakers in a (presumably) non-optimised room with no ambient sounds to speak of.
    You are already miles ahead of any situation playing out live. PA speakers are nowhere near the quality of studio monitors (different purpose = different design/manufacturing choices) and the ambient noise levels go up to 80dB or more at live gigs.

    The discussion about 1/4″ vs RCA is mute in a practice situation, provided you are not getting humms or other sound interference as a result of using an unbalanced cable. In a live/PA situation, if you are running cables from your controller to the main system, 1/4″ balanced cable is a must and RCA should be avoided (in general). For home use, if it sounds ‘unharmed’, I’d say don’t worry about it. We are into DJ-ing not audiophile listening.

    The S4 interface is plenty good enough, imho. I would not add all the extra cabling, settings and such to insert an extra component in the audio chain. While in theory the FocusRite can be (and probably is) slightly better, you are not doing studio work, you are DJ-ing. Drop outs in Traktor can be eliminated by setting the latency different.

    I would opt for the ease of use. Hook up your controller to your MBP, your speakers to the S4, plug in your headphones and done!

    January 12, 2015 at 9:20 am #2119361
    bob6397
    Participant

    Hi John,

    with RCA cables/jack cables I don’t see how much one can be higher quality than the other – xlr cables are better but only as they are balanced rather than unbalanced as rca cables are. Most people use rcas cables (and they see them on the back of cdj’s as well as pretty much every controller ever made) and assume they are better. Truth is that they are just easier for companies to fit than jack sockets – they are huge!!

    RE: your interface, you could well get slightly better sound quality from your 6i6 (I have the 2i4 and love it) and it would work with your setup. But it would not necessarily have less latency and would add an extra level of complication to your setup. The fewer devices you have on usb the better – if you can slim it down.

    In short, I wouldn’t use it. Partly because it risks damaging your interface and your controller if something happens and partly because it is unnecessary. I would rather use the NI hardware with NI software – its been designed to work together and will be more stable than your focusrite for gigs.

    hope this helps 🙂

    bob6397

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