RCA Audio Switcher with many inputs?

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Nodoyuna
Posts: 117
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:09 am

RCA Audio Switcher with many inputs?

Post by Nodoyuna »

Hi
I'm looking for an audio switcher with RCA or BNC inputs and outputs with as many inputs as possible
I've search and found some 8x1 switchers, but I'd like to have more inputs
It seems Extron does not have audio-only switchers, which is a pity, as lately I've become a fig fan of Extron products :)
So, do you know of any audio-only switchers or is 8x1 the maximum?
Of course, I'm talking about getting a good quality switcher :)
Thanks in advance
nmalinoski
Posts: 1974
Joined: Wed Jul 19, 2017 1:52 pm

Re: RCA Audio Switcher with many inputs?

Post by nmalinoski »

Extron does have audio-only switchers, although I was only able to find 6- and 12-input models, each available with balanced Phoenix and unbalanced RCA variants.

There doesn't appear to be any of the RCA models on eBay, but there is a 12-input Phoenix variant for about $55 USD. Alternatively, you could pick up two of the 6-input ones and daisy-chain them for 11 inputs.

If you want to accommodate RCA audio without building your own adapters, you can either get 13 of these dongle-style adapters, but it'll probably be cheaper to get four 20-position* 0.5mm Phoenix connectors on AliExpress (Whichever switch you buy probably won't include many, if any, of the Phoenix connectors) and 13 of these RCA to screw terminal adapters.

* These switches appear to use 20-position receptacles, which means if you get a bunch of 5-position ones, they're likely going to have fitment issues; I had this problem with my CrossPoint, which uses 10-position receptacles, and the 5-position connectors had too much plastic on their sides to fit next to each other within the same receptacle.


Out of curiosity, how does an audio-only switcher fit into your setup, and what is the purpose of going audio-only versus an AV switcher (especially if you intend to be manually switching inputs)?
Nodoyuna
Posts: 117
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:09 am

Re: RCA Audio Switcher with many inputs?

Post by Nodoyuna »

Hi

Sorry for the late reply...
Out of curiosity, how does an audio-only switcher fit into your setup, and what is the purpose of going audio-only versus an AV switcher (especially if you intend to be manually switching inputs)?
In order to organize the cabling on my setup, instead of using an Extron Crosspoint for all my input / output connections, I'm using separate switchers for every type of signal (VGA, composite...)

The audio output from each of these switcher will go to an audio switcher as inputs, and the output of this switcher will go to my audio amplifier

I prefer the audio switcher with RCA input / output in order to use the cables I already have

I'll try to get one of those with 12 inputs...
nmalinoski
Posts: 1974
Joined: Wed Jul 19, 2017 1:52 pm

Re: RCA Audio Switcher with many inputs?

Post by nmalinoski »

Nodoyuna wrote:In order to organize the cabling on my setup, instead of using an Extron Crosspoint for all my input / output connections, I'm using separate switchers for every type of signal (VGA, composite...)

The audio output from each of these switcher will go to an audio switcher as inputs, and the output of this switcher will go to my audio amplifier
To each their own, but this doesn't really make sense to me. Granted, it's my personal preference, but I like to keep the audio and video for given sources tied together for ease of maintenance and reduction of complexity. Having to manually switch audio and video together seems like more work than it should be, let alone having to switch them independently.

So, unless you've got some kind of control server that's logically pairing your audio and video outputs and remotely switching inputs on both your CrossPoint and the audio switcher, which sounds bothersome to configure, you're likely going to be manually switching both audio and video separately, which sounds bothersome to operate.
Nodoyuna wrote:I prefer the audio switcher with RCA input / output in order to use the cables I already have
I understand this, and I'm the same way, but the RCA versions of Extron equipment aren't always available; and, frankly, it'll probably be cheaper (in the long run) and faster to get one of the Phoenix versions, along with those screw terminal plugs and the RCA adapters.
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Xer Xian
Posts: 881
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2005 3:23 pm
Location: Italy

Re: RCA Audio Switcher with many inputs?

Post by Xer Xian »

If you like Extron, you could also consider getting the MPS 112 and only use it for switching audio (and maybe vga). It's very cheap on ebay and it's got twelve audio inputs (eight rca and four 3.5mm).
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