So, what I thought was going to be easy, has ended up being a pain. I am looking for a cable that has a 3.5mm male on one end and a single combined RCA male on the other end. Doesn't need to be very long.

I bought one from Radioshack awhile that looked to be exactly what I needed but, while it is a single RCA male on the end, it only produces one speakers-worth of sound. You can hear the designated right-speaker sounds at full volume and the left speaker sounds are barely there (like 25% maybe). It definitely wasn't truly combining the stereo sound.

So, I went out online and ordered one that also specifically said it 3.5 mm male to single, combined RCA male. I get sent a 3.5mm to 1/8" instrument cable adapter. Called them and they tried to tell me what they sent me was what I ordered. Basically had to school the technician on the difference between 1/8" and RCA (and I don't know a ton about audio outside of guitar stuff)

I've googled a lot but maybe I am just not looking in the right places. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to look? Obviously tons of 3.55m m/m m/f and tons or 3.5m to 2RCA males etc. but I never thought I'd have the problem I'm having finding this cable.

Basically, I have a whole-house speaker system that the previous owner installed and actually paid to have the better speakers installed. The sound is surprisingly good considering the setup. The board for the unit has an RCA input so we have been able to hook up an iPod and have it playing throughout the whole house, or just in whatever room we are going to be working in etc. I installed a nice faceplate and ran the cord through the wall so we can just hook the mp3 player up to the wall in the living room next to the TV. It is really nice, minus the small flaw that can be fixed with a cable.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Edited on November 22, 2010 at 12:17 PM. Reason : .]

11/22/2010 12:05:55 PM

RCA is mono so 1 RCA to 3.5mm will always be mono. you need dual RCA(one left one right) for stereo 3.5mm

11/22/2010 12:10:16 PM

unless you mean like rca -> mono 3.5mm which would be something from here: http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?spcDB=10429&spcWord=Audio+Adapters&keyword=mono maybe

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10429&cs_id=1042902&p_id=7240&seq=1&format=2#description ?

[Edited on November 22, 2010 at 12:14 PM. Reason : a]

11/22/2010 12:13:44 PM

^Thanks for the info and yea I guess I can try buying a 3.5mm m/m and just run it into that style adapter then into my jack in the wall and see if I get better results.

I was confused/frustrated when I set this up for the first time and ran the 3.5mm M to RCA M out of my iPod into the intercom system and wasn't getting the true sound. Just didn't make much sense to me. I mean, the intercom system is a mono, single-speaker in each room setup with a mono RCA input. I can't figure out why, with my current setup, it doesn't work fine.

So, I figured I'd come here in case I'm missing something.

PS My thread should have probably said "cable" instead of adapter but I guess either way that gets this to work is fine by me.


[Edited on November 22, 2010 at 12:36 PM. Reason : .]

11/22/2010 12:23:31 PM

Yea, AFAIK, there's no such thing as a stereo RCA single jack. RCA (composite) only carries one channel per jack. It kinda sounds like the wall jack is a proprietary connection. So what you need is either a 3.5mm mono to RCA mono, or a 3.5mm stereo to RCA stereo cable and get a 2xRCA stereo to 1xRCA mono adapter on the end.

11/22/2010 1:16:10 PM

you probably want this plugged into your source (ipod?):
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10429&cs_id=1042901&p_id=7160&seq=1&format=2

and then you need to get the output from the adapter (3.5mm mono) to RCA.

you can do that with this plus any generic m/m RCA cable (which you may already have):
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10429&cs_id=1042902&p_id=7174&seq=1&format=2

The first adapter combines the left and right channels from the source into 1 mono signal. Then the second adapter converts mono 3.5 to rca.

[Edited on November 22, 2010 at 1:25 PM. Reason : a]

11/22/2010 1:24:46 PM

^appreciate it.

If I have to I will do the 3.55 to RCA stereo and then an adapter down to 1RCA Mono, I was trying to avoid that but it definitely is a possibility.

The 3.5mm mono to RCA mono is (I think) exactly what I am looking for. This looks like what I need:

http://www.pimfg.com/Product-Detail/MONO-RCA-6

Although that is basically what I thought I bought from Radioshack that didn't work as planned but I guess I can try that.

Luckily this stuff is cheap enough that I guess I can try a few things and report back. Thanks for the input.

11/22/2010 1:25:21 PM

man i love monoprice.

^ if you plug a mono 3.5mm into your stereo source it will be mono output but only one channel. if you want both channels combined you need a 3.5 stereo to 3.5 mono adapter first.

[Edited on November 22, 2010 at 1:27 PM. Reason : .]

11/22/2010 1:26:06 PM

^that could very well be the missing puzzle piece for me. I was assuming that plugging in a mono 3.5mm into the iPod headphone jack automatically combined them thus I was thinking it was something on the RCA end somehow.

So, I should try to pickup something like this:

Metal 3.5mm Stereo Plug (male) to 3.5mm Mono Jack (female) Adaptor
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10429&cs_id=1042901&p_id=7160&seq=1&format=2

And then plug in the mono 3.5mm (male) to mono RCA (male) that I have plugged into the RCA wall jack now.

[Edited on November 22, 2010 at 2:26 PM. Reason : .]

11/22/2010 2:21:54 PM

yea that would probably work.

11/22/2010 2:28:49 PM

cool. I'll try that first since those adapters are super cheap. Thanks.

11/22/2010 2:31:31 PM

i got one at kmart on western for like 2 bucks a few years ago

11/22/2010 6:59:08 PM

I'm confused, if you have a cable that looks like this, it should sum the stereo.



I'm thinking if it doesn't work with a cable like that, your system may be stereo. Is this a professional multiroom system like On-Q?

11/22/2010 7:06:42 PM

is there some adapter box device thingy that will go from digital optical to 3.5mm headphone jack? the 3.5mm jack needs to be female.

11/22/2010 8:01:11 PM

optical is digital, a standard audio jack is analog, so you'll need a D/A converter, the easiest and most common thing to do it with is either a computer or a home audio receiver.

11/22/2010 8:03:47 PM

that won't work. i have a home theater receiver and the only outputs it has are for its own speakers. i just want to plug headphones into my satellite box without having to unplug rcas every time i want to use them. the only audio output left on the receiver is optical.

11/22/2010 8:07:03 PM

are you sure it doesn't have a headphone jack? I don't think I've ever seen a receiver without one, it might be a 1/4" out, but 1/4-1/8 adapters come with like every pair of headphones you buy.

11/22/2010 8:09:25 PM

satellite box


surround sound box

Quote :

"Inputs * Video inputs (rear): Antenna / RF, HDMI (3 inputs, v1.3) * Audio inputs: Coaxial (digital) (1 inputs), RCA stereo (3 inputs), TOSLINK (optical) (2 inputs) Outputs * Video outputs: HDMI (1 outputs, v1.3) * Speaker terminals: Spring connector"

11/22/2010 8:16:33 PM

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10423&cs_id=1042302&p_id=6884&seq=1&format=2

+

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10429&cs_id=1042902&p_id=7198&seq=1&format=2

maybe

only thing i'd be worried about is if the distance between the male rcas on the 3.5 adapter is the same as the rca female outson the converter box. you could probably find some M/M rca cables and use a F/F 3.5/rca adapter if it was a problem tho

[Edited on November 22, 2010 at 8:53 PM. Reason : .]

11/22/2010 8:51:05 PM

although if you're using the hdmi out on the satellite box idk if its gonna leave the toslink on at the same time.

11/22/2010 8:56:17 PM

Quote :

"I'm confused, if you have a cable that looks like this, it should sum the stereo. I'm thinking if it doesn't work with a cable like that, your system may be stereo. Is this a professional multiroom system like On-Q?"

That's what I have with a male RCA on the other end. I bought that because I thought it would sum the stereo.

And yea the system is a Nutone. The system has two RCA inputs but they are basically an Aux 1 and Aux 2 (one labeled Aux and the other labeled CD/Tape) and you can only select one of them at a time so it is not like you can use a normal stereo RCA setup or anything.

I bought the two RCA cables, the faceplate, and the old-work box straight from the intercom company because they had a good deal. The 3.5mm to RCA I bought separately. Based on reading the installation manual and what their rough-in kit came with, I don't know why they would make the system stereo when the only aux inputs appear to be mono.

The manual is here: http://www.nutone.com/PDF/InstallGuides/IMA3303ins.pdf

I know no one wants to read that but the part with the inputs are on page 6 if you look period.

I think I'll still try the 3.5mm stereo to 3.5mm mono and then use the cable I have (since that adapter is so cheap) just to see if that works. And then if that doesn't work I'll have to try something else.

11/22/2010 9:01:42 PM

Quote :

"although if you're using the hdmi out on the satellite box idk if its gonna leave the toslink on at the same time."

i'm using the composites to run video to the tv and red/white to the surround sound.

i didn't use hdmi bc the screen was super dark. maybe it was a crappy hdmi cable, bad box (i have another one now, first one's dvr crapped out), or...? i haven't tried using hdmi with it since then.

[Edited on November 22, 2010 at 9:09 PM. Reason : ]

11/22/2010 9:07:42 PM

Quote :

"That's what I have with a male RCA on the other end. I bought that because I thought it would sum the stereo."

TS connections (mono) are not TRS (stereo) connections, research the difference. If there is no ring, the right channel is LOST (effectively grounded), not summed. You need a STEREO to MONO adapter, otherwise your just getting the LEFT channel to MONO.

TS (right channel lost, no ring):


TRS (right channel summed, ring):


If you use a TS 3.5mm plug, no RCA stereo-to-mono changer will fix the issue, once the right channel is lost.

[Edited on November 23, 2010 at 11:38 AM. Reason : .]

11/23/2010 11:33:05 AM

Right, and since there doesn't seem to be a supply of cables that are 3.5mm male (with ring) on one end and RCA mono male on the other end, my plan is to try:

iPod
+

+
3.5mm male (no ring) -> RCA mono [cable]
+
RCA Input on Nutone system.


This should sum them before it sends it to the intercom as mono such that I'm not losing either channel correct?

11/23/2010 11:47:53 AM

^if that picture is a 3.5mm stereo M to 3.5mm mono F than that would work yes.

[Edited on November 23, 2010 at 12:33 PM. Reason : .]

11/23/2010 12:31:08 PM

Yes it is. And I saw your post before the edit, and the only reason I wasn't looking at that route atm was simply because I already have the 3.5mm mono male to RCA on hand so getting the adapter to make that one works just made the most sense.

11/23/2010 1:13:29 PM

update:

finally bought the adapter ((Waited until I had other things to order from monoprice):



works like a charm. Thanks Finally have both channels from the ipod playing throughout the whole-house system.

[Edited on December 29, 2010 at 8:42 AM. Reason : .]

12/29/2010 8:36:06 AM

Quote :

"i'm using the composites to run video to the tv and red/white to the surround sound."

(or do you mean component? still, why aren't you using the toslink out to your receiver?)
(and your problem with HDMI probably had to do with the picture settings on your TV. most manufacturers let you set different values for each input.)

12/29/2010 10:20:56 AM