Splitting Audio Signal

[SilverJS]

Hi all,

I've put this thread in the Cables section as well...just wanted to make sure to have a response. =)

Anyway, I have a stereo receiver (Yamaha RX-396) that powers two homemade speakers (8 ohms each). I also have a sub (4 ohm) with its own amplifier.

My receiver does not have a sub pre-out, so I am now wondering how to hook it up to my system. I believe the best way would be to split the DVD player's output so that it sends two signals - one to the stereo receiver, the other to the sub amp.

Thus, my questions are :

1. Is splitting the DVD player's signal actually an option? Will this significantly degrade the sound quality?

2. If I can do this, is it simply a question of buying two RCA splitters (one for L and one for R), and off we go?

3. Finally, if the sub amp's input needs to be mono, how could I combine the L-R outputs into a mono one?

Thank you very much!

P.S. - if you have any better ideas on how to hook the sub up, please don't hesitate to pipe up....I have also thought about splitting one of the speaker's signals and using a speaker-level to line-level converter, but I believe this would somewhat degrade the sound... My final idea has been to use a simple crossover, but I'd still need to both combine the L-R outputs for the sub one, AND use a speaker-level to line-level converter if I did that!

[markw]

Splitting Audio Signal?