In this section, we're going to learn some important things about audio cables and the various kinds of connecting widgets that appear on the ends of those cables.

At left are all the kinds of connectors that we will be covering in this lesson. This set of connectors is all that is required to connect our phonograph player to our stereo receiver, and our stereo receiver to our sound card.

Maybe you can already identify all of these connection types, but if not, you will be able to do so by the time you're done with this lesson. It's not too hard, so let's get started.

Cable Gender: Male And Female

Connectors have gender and the rule is pretty much what you'd expect:

Connectors with "prongs" = "male"

Connectors with "holes" = "female"

Types of Connectors

Although there are seven different connectors shown in our picture, these all belong to one of three connection types: RCA, 1/8th-inch mini jack, and a phonograph ground wire connector. Each has a male and female variant, except for the phono ground connector. The minijack connector also has monoaural and stereo variants, in addition to its male and female variants. Here's Professor Whozawitts' handy guide:

RCA Connectors

This connector is an RCA (male) connector. It is a very common kind of connector. Most stereo receivers have input jacks for this kind of connector, and that's where we'll be using it most -- to get the audio signal into and out of our stereo (or A/V surround-sound) receiver.

This connector is an RCA (female) connector. We actually won't be using this connector in our setup, but you should know that they exist. Instead of the prong, the female RCA connector has a hole. The prong fits into the hole, and the metal tabs (the things that look like cannon-mounts from a castle-tower) grip the outside of the metal jack at the tip of the female RCA connector in exactly the same way as they do when we plug a male RCA connector into a female jack on the back of our receiver.

Minijack Connectors

As we mentioned earlier, the minijack connectors come in both mono and stereo variants. We'll talk about those differences in a moment. But for now, note that the minijack connectors with prongs are the male ones, just as you'd expect.

And, also as expected, the minijack connectors with holes are called female. We won't be using cables with female minijack connectors, though we will be seeing them on our soundcard.

Phono Ground

The phono ground connector is used to connect the phonograph player's ground wire to receiver's ground wire in order to help prevent audible hum that can come from connecting together equipment with mismatched electrical ground values. The ground wire and its associated connector are therefore fundamentally different from the other cables under discussion in this section, because they do not carry audio signals. Concepts like "stereo" and "mono" don't apply to the phono ground connector. Similarly, they don't come in "male" and "female" variants either.

Usually the phono ground wire is part of your phonograph, with only the end that connects to the receiver unattached. Since its shape is unique, there is usually only one obvious place to attatch it to the receiver. The only other jack on the back of most receivers that looks anything like the phono ground is the FM antenna plate. But these are easy to distinguish if you just remember that the phono ground has only one connector, while the FM antenna has two.

Mono And Stereo

Some connectors, like the RCA connector, are inherently mono -- if you want to convey a stereo signal with these connectors you have to use two of them: one for the left channel and one for the right.

But the minijack connector is an example of a connector that has both a mono and stereo version. On the male minijack, you can distinguish the mono from the stereo by noting how many stripes are on the prong.

One stripe means it's a mono connector.

Two stripes means stereo.

Unfortunately, there's no such simple visual key for figuring out whether a female minijack connector is capable of conveying a stereo signal, or only a mono signal. The stereo and mono female minijack connectors look identical. The only way to be sure which is which is to try them out and let your ears be the judge. If you hear a stereo image, with different sounds coming from the left and right, then the female minijack connector must be stereo. If not, it's mono.

On the other hand, even though there is no "for sure" way of distinguishing them by sight, a good hint can come from looking at what kind of connector is at the other end of the cable. If a cable has a female minijack at one end, and a pair of RCA jacks at the other, it is likely that the minijack is stereo. On the other hand, if there is a mono male minijack at the other end, then the female minijack is probably mono. The rule of thumb here is that one can make a good guess about whether a female minijack is mono or stereo by seeing whether the opposite end of the cable is designed for a mono or stereo signal. Most of the time cables are designed to transport audio signals, not modify them. So if the cable supports stereo at one end, it's more likely than not to support stereo at the other end too.

That's about all we need to know about cable nomenclature. Let's test out our newfound knowledge!