Types of RCA cables

The RCA cables are named after Radio Corporation of America. Initially, they were used to connect phonographs to amplifiers. Presently, the RCA cable is used to connect various audio and at the same time video devices such as stereos to speakers or camcorders to TVs.

This cable generally has three-colored plugs which are connected to three correspondingly colored jacks. These are also called phono jacks or phono plugs. The colors, which are used, are red and white for right and left audio channels and yellow for composite video. The high quality camcorders possess the three RCA jacks. For this, the signal entering or going out of the camcorder pass through these three separate channels which results in the best quality transfer. The lower-end camcorders only possess one jack, a stereo jack which combines all the three channels.

There are mainly three types of RCA cables: Single RCA cable, Dual RCA cable and Triple RCA cable. Single RCA cable is used for single audio and video patching. The dual RCA cable is an unbalanced cable, which has two pairs of red and white or black or yellow and black connectors. The triple RCA cable is generally used for single-channel composite video as well as dual channel stereo audio. The lengths of all these RCA cables are invariably about 3 to 50 feet. The dual RCA cables have gold contact connectors and spiral braided wires while the triple RCA cables gold plated tips and PVC protective jackets.