We spend our lives (or most of them) trying to give our customers the best picture possible. We connect VCRs & Sat receivers using s-video, and DVD players and HD receivers with component video, often with thick, expensive cables to try and get that last "edge" of perfection. We'll even sometimes forego the receiver's on-screen display in order to connect video directly to the monitor in order to eliminate the loss associated with an extra connection.

And all this is just over the last 10 feet.

Our cable signal comes from miles away, all (x)-hundred channels & interactive services, down a single coax that's tapped at every house on the street, and then split (x)-times in the house. Satellite travels WIRELESS from earth all the way to orbit & then back again to the dish, where the LNB sends it down a single coax to the receiver, usually with a switch on the line somewhere.

If all this is possible, why on earth can't the last 10 feet (that carries only ONE channel) also be a single coax?

Because if it only needed one coax instead of five (component, s-video and composite) the world would only need 20% of the installation guys it now supports. This is job security for you and me! Don't rock the boat! :-)

More than 5... the incoming service lines can carry 5.1 audio as well.

Hehehe... the thought that Noel Lee lobbied to keep such a connection format off the market occured to me as well.

I actually have a system that is very close to this. The turntable has a variable-reluctance cartridge, and I hardly ever take it off the 78 RPM (78.26, actually) setting. I usually keep the stylus weight well under an ounce, too.

There is one coax from there to the amplifier, a Capehart tube job with 6L6s in the output stage. This is a pretty cool amplifier because the preamp stage has infinitely variable turnover, so when you go from the 78s made before microphones were used, to the ones with a 100 Hz turnover, to RIAA ones, to English FFRR recordings, you can change the turnover in an attempt, by ear, to make the playback have a flat frequency response, all the way up to the 8 or so kHz that several of these records have.

I hate to disappoint you, but the single coax stops there. I actually have use two-conductor wire to go to the loudspeaker from the 8 ohm terminals of the output transformer. Coax at that point of the circuit has been known to make the amplifier oscillate, which blows the tweeter in my speaker. It's really irritating to have to fix the tweeter, because for some reason people want to sell me parts in pairs.

It is wonderful to listen to, as well, as the sound comes from all over the room. Mostly from the speaker, really, but I am told that every room has reflections at different frequencies, so I am sure it is coming from all over the room.

Yup, one single coax WILL DO IT!