finally 
someone who knows there shit
+1
I made 100’ RCA cables from telephone wire purchased at Home Depot… When I tested it on my home HiFi.. (Carver Amp, analog preamp, 1980’s Limited Klipsch speakers) I was only able to hear a slight difference between the standard and my home-made hack.
At the event where I used this hack cable I initially had some interference, but that was because some idiot laid a rats nest of power cables over the signal line… that problem solved and the show was fine.. I was 75’ away from the mixing desk. No issues…
note.. at 100’ the signal is a little bit weaker.. but no loss in fidelity. As long as your plugging into another pre-amp, mixing desk, or even another DJ mixer the gain controls will make up for the loss.
+1
Just pay attention to the chain. If you have crap cables and/or decide to run retarded lengths there is going to be loss of quality with possible sonic interference. Remember that you are at a event. Not laying cable for a entertainment center.
Way too many variables.
Don’t be that guy.
u honestly think a 75’-100’ run of unbalanced audio would have the same signal to noise ratio as the same length of balanced audio? lol
i would never in a million years run an unbalanced audio feed that long for a live and supposedly professional performance
The original question was long runs of rca. and the length of run won’t effect sound quality. electrical interference can happen if your cables are 2 feet long or a 100 feet long. Having said that, your always better using balanced feeds to protect again interference.
now back to the troll, I would wager that in a double blind test of 50’ unbalanced rca versus balanced xlr, you couldn’t pick balanced 8 of 10 times.
on a busy stage at an outdoor event like the OP mentioned, i bet you i could…i bet anyone with half a knowledge of sound could
lets do this.
I bet I could
idk.. you might be able to tell the faint difference switching between the two..
BUT Lets say you had one shot.. its either the RCAs or XLRs.. which is it?
you would NOT be able to tell!
Why? because their are other variables that play a bigger role.. Like the speakers themselves or the mixer.
I couldn’t… not the one time that I had to do it… but the rig wasn’t top notch and it was in mono to boot… it was mains powered… no generators. Not ideal, but if you’ve got to ask the question in the first place, then it sounds like budget is an issue. It worked for me… the gain on the main mixing desk made up for the weaker signal… world isn’t always the ideal place we imagine when we write on these threads.
Switching between the 2, no problem, there’s a level difference between +4dbu balanced and -10dbv unbalanced signals. One shot, much more difficult.
put it like this…i gave professional advice, and i stand by it.
Alright, now the question in the op was how far can you run them, he wants to run them quite far with amps and lighting and stuff for bands all around him.
Ive said it before and i will say it again, you are better off with balanced, i dont care what anyone else says because at the end of the day, do you see the s4 or the new pioneer controllers coming out with balanced master output, YES.
If you are running them long or have the chance of interference then you NEED balanced, especially if you have or want to describe yourself as a pro.
^valid point.. Its obvious, and I’m sure we can all agree, that balanced is better.
But we’re talking 25" feet here. Chances are you won’t be able to tell any difference.
Just get some nice thick cables and try to keep them away from light/extension cords..
Do you honestly think a cheap DI is going to be that much better than straight quality RCAs?
And for as little difference as its going to be, its not worth dropping the cash on a quality DI.
Edit: also, I wouldn’t bring the S4 into a conversation about quality! 
why not the s4 is a quality product. And a balanced signal is a balanced signal isnt it, so a cheap beringer di or an expensive one isn’t going to make a difference.
All im saying is i wouldn’t risk it, would you ?
haha.. I was just kidding. I’m just not fond of the quality of the S4..
but we won’t get into that! 
Correct.. a balanced signal is balanced
BUT if the DI itself produces noise then you will have a noisy balanced signal..
sure it will be less likely to pick up external noise.. but it will carry the noise produced in the DI.
SO.. for 25ft I would trust quality RCAs over a cheap DI.
Thats a good point, i didnt think of that.
Alright then if he gets a nice thick gauge rca cable with maybe some noise filters at the end.
And make sure that they are shielded wire because then you will get less interference.
hi guys, just finished a gig and read back… jesus i didnt mean to start an argument lol, as its the first large is, especially outdoor event im doing i think it best to just buy both, at the end of the day im supposed to be promoting myself as a professional like you said and should any problems arise i should always have a plan b! ive spoken to a sound and light engineer i know and he’s giving me some quality xlr cables and is also going to make up for me some high guage rca’s so saving some cash and going to buy a better quality di box. thanks for all the input from everyone, didnt realise i was opening such an aladdins cave but really, thanks, the event is on the 27th of this month, ill let you all know how it goes.
Thank you for starting an interesting topic!!
Its always good to have threads like these in the forums for future reference!
Best of luck!!
thanks i appreciate it, i never realised there were so many variables, and to be honest ive always just turned up and plugged in i havent done anything like this before but there is a lot of potential for future bookings here, like i said its a corporate charity event, not really my style but i know the organiser, im doing it for free but still, you gotta be professional about things.
+1
Good luck !!
And it will be interesting to see how it goes and what you find better.