Rca question Really simple, I feel stupid

[Jsmith1234]

I am a Dj and I have always used RCA cables to connect my decks to the house mixer, They have always been White and Red and thats the colour of the sockets on my deck. I have always bought my stuff of Djkit.com and they seem to only have cables for red and black I was just wondering Do they do the same thing, Can I use that as well?.

[TomLyall]

In a word, Yes.

[bruce]

Yes, it's just a colour, used to identify corresponding ends of the cable. The colour has no magical properties - a red/white pair will do just the same job as a red/black. Or any other colour combination.

[ryandell]

Hello,

 

Yes, you will be able to use the Red and Black leads, these are the same as Red and White leads. Both will be compatible with each other.

 

Thanks

 

Ryan

 

Edit: Seems I was a bit slow off the mark, I think we've all answered the question though.

[johndenim]

As you may have gathered it doesn't matter what colour they are.

 

Don't feel "stupid", the obvious to some may not be the same to others.

This forum is all about asking questions to a lot of sound professionals, who will go out of their way to help you.

 

This is one of the best sound forums online, all credit to the MODS and MEMBERS who answer quickly without criticism.

We are all in this together!

 

John Denim.

[Bobbsy]

A quick final note to expand on WHY there are different colours at all:

 

It's just a quick way to keep straight in your mind which is the left channel and which is right when you're hooking up. As such, pretty much any colours could have been used, though it's become a de facto standard on lots of consumer gear for red to equal the right channel.

 

Bob

[Andrew C]

Just to take this one step further; if you come across three way cables with a yellow connector, this is best used for video. Many are identical to the audio cables, but a significant number use a coax cable instead.

[Shez]

And to confuse things even further, in a broadcast environment, you might come across audio channel pairs in red & green. In this instance, red is left and green is right...