Tape duplication: daisy chaining vs RCA splitter

[W.K.]

Maybe dumb question, but I am stacking up with cassette decks for dubbing purposes and the usual way is to daisy chain them when recording. Downside of this is I can't monitor any of the signals. But then I was thinking, isn't it also possible to do this with an AV-splitter and use an AV-switchbox for monitoring.

Like this:
Mixer > incoming signal > AV-Splitter > Cassette deck input (1)
                                                    Cassette deck input (2)
                                                    Cassette deck input (3)
                                                    etc.
 
                                                    Cassette deck outouts > AV-Switchbox > Mixer channel (non-recording)

Think of something like this spliter box. Yes, cheap Chinese electronics are maybe not ideal, but if it works, why not. Anyone who uses this? To much signal loss? Pros? Cons? Any better solutions?

[deutscheasphalt]

Whether it'll work for your purposes is up to you. I've decided against using these cheap splitters since the sound quality is awful. Some of these are only used as headphone splitters for rehearsal just to get some signal spread disregarding recording quality completely. Interfaces with multiple outs are usually expensive but maybe you can find a good deal. Fortunately I own a UFX from back in the day that I can use to chain each output on 2 decks respectively. Chaining once doesn't seem to degrade the source signal that much and a setup of 4 stereo outs -> 8 decks is an acceptable option for real time dubbing of small batches.

[W.K.]

Guess you are right, cheap price will likely mean cheap sound. I don't think I really want to upgrade my audio interface at this point (indeed, something like an UFX is very nice and also too expensive), but trying something like an ART SPLITMix4 for a little more money can't hurt.

[deutscheasphalt]

Which interface are you using? Even if you had only 4 mono outs you could still probably daisy chain twice for a total of 6 decks dubbing stereo simultaneously. The splitmix4 box is passive so you will most likely lose a lot of signal level to impedance (some site mentioned up to 12dB). For monitoring I'm not sure why you would need to use the splitter in reverse since a mixer essentially provides that function already. Depending on whether the amount of channels you have available corresponds to the number of decks you could just run each headphone output to separate channels and monitor signals via your mixer.

[W.K.]

Good thinking. Allen & Heath ZED-10. 1 main out, 1 record out, 1 monitor out, 1 headphone. Also 1 FX and 1 AUX but only mono.

So total of 4 stereo outputs including main mix, but I could hook up a speaker to the AUX output for monitoring and free up the main mix for recording.