On RCA adapters is Red/Right and White/Left?

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kidkage

kidkage

Bored of Canada
Sometimes I just want to listen through or work on monitors without plugging in my interface, powering on my mains, etc...
I remembered that I still have my old KRK Rokit 6 monitors sitting in boxes... so I've decided to take advantage of them and use them for hassle-free monitoring from my laptop or cell-phone via 1/8" to rca.

So I bought this Planet Waves PW-P047C | Sweetwater.com
since I can use it with the cool RCA cables I was given a while back Oyaide Neo d+ Series Class B RCA Cable | Musician's Friend

Which brings me to my final question... on that adapter. Which is left and which is right?
oh the shame :facepalm:
 
JLondon said:
On my yamaha mixer white is left/ red is right.
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And I think that's basically how it is universally. I'm just not sure if that still applies with it being on a 1/8" adapter.

Oh well, guess I'll find out when the adapter arrives :D
 
If it's red and white or red and black - red is right.

This is normal consumer standard.

If it's red and green - red is left (as in the colour of navigation lights, as originally adopted by the BBC and Nagra) - but this is more on pro. equipment.
 
I always go red/right because they both begin with R. Easy to remember.
I've never come across red/green before except in a plug.
 
grimtraveller said:
I always go red/right because they both begin with R. Easy to remember.
I've never come across red/green before except in a plug.
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When I have more than a pair of leads, I colour code them in the order of red, green blue and black, which, for me, is such an easy order to remember.
 
Red is my hero. Making a Zamboni out of a Chrysler K car is genius.
 
As long as you use one color for left and the other for right on both devices it doesn't matter.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
As long as you use one color for left and the other for right on both devices it doesn't matter.
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Exactly. It's just like the red and black of booster cables. It doesn't matter which one you use for which, as long as it's the same on both cars.
 
But when you got 1/8" TRS to dual RCA you don't get to pick how it's connected on the one end!

R is for Red and Right and Ring, usually.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
As long as you use one color for left and the other for right on both devices it doesn't matter.
Click to expand...

That's true.....though on some consumer gear, the actual RCA jacks are also color-coded White/Left, Red/Right...and while you can ignore that and use either colored cable, just keeping it the same at both ends like you said....it kinda' makes sense to stick with the standard color code orientation when possible.

Heck...in the miles and miles of cable I've soldered and hooked up over the years...if I have two cables for a stereo hook-up, and one is red...it always goes on the right side channel. :)
I do that with other colors too when possible....like green is always right, blue is always left....etc.
It's just a way to easily remember....so when I'm behind some rack, and I need to connect two wires, I just stick with that same code....a color with r=right, and l=left....if neither, make up a color code you like, and stick with it for everything.
With multi-channel color coded snakes....I just go with the color sequence that looks the prettiest....like a nice rainbow effect. :laughings:


Kidding aside....color codes are nice, but I suggest you always label/number every wire at both ends, and write down what goes where....that's the sure thing. When you got a pile of spaghetti behind a rack....the last thing you want to have to do is trace a wire back to its origination point.
 
I have a yellow and black set somewhere.... I don't know how I cope, really.:facepalm:
 
miroslav said:
With multi-channel color coded snakes....I just go with the color sequence that looks the prettiest....like a nice rainbow effect.
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For my snake I colour code using red green blue black. So channels 1 to 4 are the red group, and each within that is RGBB, then next group of four is green, and each within is RGBB again and so on. Very systematic am I, but it makes plugging into the desk a doddle.
 
grimtraveller said:
I always go red/right because they both begin with R. Easy to remember.
Click to expand...

And the word for "Right" starts with an "R" in quite a lot of languages, which is probably why it became the consumer standard.



grimtraveller said:
I've never come across red/green before except in a plug.
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Presumably because you have never worked in a professional broadcast situation ??

Nagra used red for left and green for right as you can see in this picture of the IV-S:-

014-4.webp

Red = left and green = right was also the standard on stereo PPM meters:-

PPMme121-1.webp

The BBC used it all the time and red/green is often used in professional circles, which is why I said "be careful" earlier.
 
Thanks for the Nagra IV-S picture. The Nagra is the closest I've ever come to falling in love with a piece of gear. (To show my age, I actually started with a Nagra III though.)

While John Willett is absolutely right about the use of red/green for L/R in some professional gear, there's precious little crossover between the sort of equipment that would use this standard and consumer gear with Phono/RCA plugs. And, even where there is crossover, it's highly unlikely that cables for the pro end of things will have any colour code at all--it'll probably be a plain black cable with a Neutrik connector and a detailed label about where it goes.

The main point is that the cables themselves are completely agnostic about which side of a stereo signal they're carrying--the important thing is to be consistent at both ends. In the case of the photos the OP provided, on the quarter inch to phono adaptor, the white will be left and the red will be right. Since the cable you propose to plug in is green and white, I'd probably use white-white and red-green so at least one is in a matching colour...but it doesn't really matter as long as whatever you connect to the other end is connected to match the source.

I hope the OP was given that phono cable though--the price they're charging is silly money.
 
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