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makeshift mini stereo 1/8" to RCA L/R cable....

Discussion in 'Receivers and amplifiers' started by Halen5150, Apr 27, 2007.

  1. Halen5150

    Halen5150 Regular member

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    Hey Guys;


    In recent discovering that I'm not using one of my old receivers anymore; I figured I'd trying getting some better sound out of my computer by hooking up to my computer and with some good speakers.


    ..Well; little did I know that my sound card doesn't have those analog RCA L/R connections; so I thought I was stumped.


    ..But; I figured that I could at least try and make a 1/8" mini stereo to analog RCA cable by cutting off the plug of an old set of headphones; and cutting off the plugs of an old L/R audio cable that came with an old vcr; and to my discovery it didn't work......?

    Right now I'm at a loss as to what's going wrong. I thought that putting one of these together would be pretty self explanatory, right? Don't you just hook the stereo channels [i.e.; red wire to red wire; and white wire to white wire] together and it should work??


    Let me know what I'm doing wrong please if anyone's made their own one of these cables.



    All I really wanted to do was have a cable for hooking the receiver to pc.


    Lastly; I don't want a "Why don't you just go to Radio Shack and buy a cable?" kind of reply; because I already know about that. I'm just seeing if I can save 2 bucks and learn something in the process..lol...


    --Halen5150
     
  2. Indochine

    Indochine Regular member

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    Learn something about blowing up your sound card?

    You need to connect the ground wires as well. If you just connect the red and the white wires to the L and R stereo inputs, you'll get no sound just a lot of hum.

    [​IMG]

    The RCA cable has 2 leads, each with an inner wire and a shield. The shields need to be connected to the ground wire from the headphone jack. Cheap headphone cables often just have a kind of thin copper wire wrapped with cotton which is hard to solder to.

    You're getting one all the same, Mr Picky.

     
  3. Halen5150

    Halen5150 Regular member

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    hey thanx for the reply;) just what I was looking for!



    p.s. srry if my post came off as being 'picky'; I just said that so that way nobody would try and not answer my question by just telling me to 'take the easy way out.'



    Thanx; Appreciate It;
    --Halen5150
     

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