# Digital vs RCA
**URL:** https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146
**Category:** Mixers
**Created:** [May 12, 2020, 6:43am UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146 "2020-05-12T06:43:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mentalmorg](https://community.enginedj.com/u/Mentalmorg)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 6:43am UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/1 "2020-05-12T06:43:19Z")
Hey guys,
Soo, which is better… Digital vs RCA? What’s the pros and cons?
Regards
Gareth
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### Author:  [@NoiseRiser](https://community.enginedj.com/u/NoiseRiser)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 7:04am UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/2 "2020-05-12T07:04:01Z")
Hello @Mentalmorg, For me Digital is OK, but I think best answer can be provided by @Reticuli.
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### Author:  [@Jetsound](https://community.enginedj.com/u/Jetsound)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 7:41am UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/3 "2020-05-12T07:41:04Z")
If the Audio item that you want to plug into the mixer has digital it puts then there’s really no reason not to go digital. Better sound and frees up analog connectors on your mixer for os devices with no digital connections, if you have any.
Don’t drop any significant amount of cash on special digital cables. For short distances of 5 metres or less, with no particular interference issues, like a lighting dimmer pack next to the mixer, just use ordinary analog cables.
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### Author:  [@NoiseRiser](https://community.enginedj.com/u/NoiseRiser)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 7:43am UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/4 "2020-05-12T07:43:44Z")
If he will use cables supplied with the SC5000 units then digital is fine, but for example the thin china RCA’s that were supplied with CDJ’s were a disaster to run a digital signal. They were creating so much interference and jitter, the music degradation was horrible over their cables.
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### Author:  [@Mentalmorg](https://community.enginedj.com/u/Mentalmorg)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 8:25am UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/5 "2020-05-12T08:25:23Z")
Is it better sound from the digital I/O Or is it barely noticeable?
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### Author:  [@mufasa](https://community.enginedj.com/u/mufasa)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 9:00am UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/6 "2020-05-12T09:00:43Z")
Your answer is coming 😬
Put on the Kettle and reserve some brain space
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### Author:  [@Mentalmorg](https://community.enginedj.com/u/Mentalmorg)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 10:58am UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/7 "2020-05-12T10:58:18Z")
I take that it’s rather controversial? 😬 I’ll get prepared then.
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### Author:  [@Jetsound](https://community.enginedj.com/u/Jetsound)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 11:10am UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/8 "2020-05-12T11:10:12Z")
It all depends on whether your main audience is human or just computers and robots. Someone will come along an put some long spiel on about Prime sounds bad and we don’t know if digital out misses this audio stage or bypasses that audio chip and maybe this, possibly that etc. Guesswork, hunches and theories
Digital is there for the sake of quality. If you’ve got digital ins and outs on the two items you’re connecting, use digital.
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### Author:  [@Mentalmorg](https://community.enginedj.com/u/Mentalmorg)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 11:52am UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/9 "2020-05-12T11:52:47Z")
Well I just converted over to the digital way. If I’m honest couldn’t here a difference but it’s less cluttered behind the decks now so that’s what I’m sticking with.
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### Author:  [@hellnegative](https://community.enginedj.com/u/hellnegative)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 1:12pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/10 "2020-05-12T13:12:43Z")
Digital has its pro’s in a live environment where interference can be an issue. Running digital avoids one more possibility of noise in the routing chain. At home, you may never notice the difference.
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### Author:  [@DJColdfield](https://community.enginedj.com/u/DJColdfield)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 1:52pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/11 "2020-05-12T13:52:18Z")
Go with digital cables. There is a difference between digital and analog cables. I purchased digital and i am very satisfied with the quality of sound. Why transform from the digital player to analog and in the mixer from an analog to digital?
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### Author:  [@Reticuli](https://community.enginedj.com/u/Reticuli)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 3:30pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/12 "2020-05-12T15:30:15Z")
On any other DJ gear normally it is an easy yes to digital. Prime sounds degraded enough already you might not notice the improvement through all the muck… That and we don’t know if using the analog outs bypasses one more SRC stage… The player DACs might be fed the oversample before it is bumped down to 96khz. Then there’s the issue of how to set up the Denon mixer sample rate in light of players’ issues. No easy answers. On the simple plus side with Prime, digital is half the cables ;-p.
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### Author:  [@mufasa](https://community.enginedj.com/u/mufasa)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 4:41pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/13 "2020-05-12T16:41:05Z")
@Mentalmorg hope that kettle is still boiling.
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### Author:  [@Mentalmorg](https://community.enginedj.com/u/Mentalmorg)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2020, 7:48pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/digital-vs-rca/22146/14 "2020-05-12T19:48:23Z")
😂 I love it though, I love learning about this stuff. I’m a bit geeky like that!