RCA Cables

What a phono lead carries

An RCA plug, the phono plug, carries a line-level signal on a single centre pin inside an outer ring. Audio leads come in pairs: red for the right channel and white or black for the left. A yellow plug carries composite video. The plugs push on rather than lock, so they are quick to connect behind a hi-fi or a TV, and a good plug grips the socket firmly enough to stay put. Most home equipment still uses RCA for analogue audio, from turntable phono stages and CD players to the line outputs on TVs and streamers, so a good pair of leads stays useful for years.

Because RCA is an unbalanced connection, it suits the short runs between boxes on a shelf or a desk, where it works very well.

Stereo leads for hi-fi and DJ set-ups

A twin RCA lead is the everyday link between a source and an amplifier: a CD player, a streamer or a turntable's phono stage to a hi-fi amplifier, or a DJ player to a mixer. Our twin leads keep the two channels side by side so they route together behind the equipment, and the longer ones reach from a shelf to an amplifier across a room.

Match the colours at both ends and the channels stay the right way round, which matters most with speakers set wide apart. For a subwoofer's line input, a single lead from the amplifier's subwoofer output is all it takes; the product page shows whether a lead is single or twin.

RCA to jack for phones, laptops and instruments

A phone, a laptop or a tablet has a 3.5mm headphone socket rather than RCA outputs, so a 3.5mm to twin RCA lead is the simple way to play it through a hi-fi or a PA amplifier. RCA to 6.3mm jack leads do the same job for mixers, keyboards and audio interfaces that use full-size jack sockets. The same leads feed a keyboard, a drum machine or a DJ controller with jack outputs into the RCA inputs of a home amplifier for practice.

Turn the volume down on both devices before you connect, then bring the source up first and the amplifier second, so the first thing you hear is music rather than a thump.

RCA to XLR for mixing desks

Consumer equipment speaks RCA and a PA mixer speaks XLR, so twin RCA to XLR leads bridge the two. Use them to feed a media player or a DJ mixer into a mixing desk, or to take a desk's XLR outputs into a home amplifier for a rehearsal room. Line levels differ between the two worlds, so set the channel gain from low and raise it until the meters sit comfortably. At events, a laptop or a phone often plays through a 3.5mm to RCA lead into a small mixer, and the mixer then feeds the PA over XLR.

Our XLR cables page carries more leads that pair XLR with RCA and jack plugs.

Triple RCA for composite video

Triple RCA leads carry composite video on the yellow plug with stereo audio on the red and white. They connect older TVs, camcorders, DVD players and some projectors that predate HDMI, and they are still the way to get a picture from much of that equipment. For anything with an HDMI socket, our HDMI cables carry picture and sound together in one lead. Match the plugs by colour at both ends: yellow to the video input, red to the right audio input and white to the left. Many projectors and TVs keep a composite input beside their HDMI sockets, so a triple lead can bring an older player or games console back into use.

Getting a clean signal

Most hum on an RCA connection comes from the route rather than the lead. Keep audio leads away from mains leads and power supplies, cross them at right angles where they must meet, and avoid coiling a long lead into a tight bundle behind the equipment. Use a screened lead for longer runs, and choose the shortest length that reaches.

If a hum stays, connect one source at a time to find where it enters; the cause is usually a single piece of equipment rather than the whole system. A lead that crackles when it moves has a loose plug or a broken conductor, and it is quicker to swap it than to trace the fault.