Convention for naming for audio adaptors and leads

On 3/22/2009 1:10 PM fudgee logic spake thus:

I'd call it a phono plug-to-phono plug adapter (or coupler), as that's what it adapts. Or a "double female phono connector", to more precisely describe the adapter itself. (Or a "double-ended female RCA connector". Or ... )

(Does anyone call them "RCA connectors" anymore?)

In France they're called Cinch connectors. I'd call the adapter a back-to-back female phono coupler

S.

Most accurate and least confusing is RCA (phono) female-female adapter. It should not be decribed by the plugs it adapts, most people would consider a "phono plug to plug adapter" as being Male-Male, rather than F-F.

Sure, less confusion that "phono" IMO, which many seem to confuse with "phone".

MrT.

"Serge Auckland" wrote in news:Dr- snipped-for-privacy@bt.com:

And I bet she'd slap your face if you did. >:)

On 3/22/2009 7:09 PM Mr.T spake thus:

Kind of like the confusion (at least in my mind) between "onshore" and "offshore" winds; I've always got to stop and think: does that mean the wind is blowing on the shore from the ocean, or on the shore from the land?

winds are like electric current, the actual flow is the opposite way to the common description.

:)

OK, I think I've got it. An adapter (or "adaptor", "coupler", "gender changer") should be described by the connectors it actually contains rather than the connectors which it mates with.

Can I now ask about another related usage which also confuses me. As an example, let's say I have an adapter which has an RCA-phono socket and a

Some suppliers leave out the terms "socket" and "plug". So in this example, what is the common usage:

(a) "RCA-phono to 3.5mm jack". (b) "3.5mm jack to RCA-phono"

One great confusion is the meaning of the terms "plug" and "socket". As far as I'm concerned a plug goes on a cable, and a socket goes on a panel. You therefore can have male plugs or female plugs, and the same for sockets.

Therefore your adapter above is an RCA female to 3.5mm jack male. You don't and shouldn't mention the words plug or socket.

S.

Never. A plug is male and a socket is female. Another word for a socket is a jack. It doesn't matter what they are attached to, and nor should it - that is entirely beside the point (missing the business end, if you like).

In RF, of course, there are hermaphrodite connectors, like the 7mm.

(c) Female RCA (Cinch) to male 3.5mm phone (mono)

• "phono" is too easily confused with "phone"

• the original "RCA phono" connector is also known as "Cinch", particularly outside the US.

• "socket" and "plug" (and "jack") are not necessarily defined properly by the public. For that matter "male" and "female" are not always identified properly because male connectors often have pins recessed into a female-looking shell. (No anthropomorphic implications intended. :-)

• each end must be precisely and completely defined, not left to assumption if that is done, then the sequence is not significant, although common convention is to state the female end first (presumed to be the "input")

• "mini-phone" is no longer assumed to be 1/8 inch or 3.5mm since there is increasing use of similar-looking 2.5mm connectors, etc.

• phone connectors (of whatever size) should be specified at least as "stereo" vs "mono", although there is growing use of 4-pole versions (for stereo headphones + microphone, or stereo audio + video, etc.) and 3-pole does not necessarily imply "stereo" either, as it is commonly used for audio + power (as for mono computer "mic input"s)

"fudgee logic" wrote in news:mrLxl.144627$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe07.ams:

If context is not specified, all you have is convention. It's like a binary digit. Instead of agonising over (usually lazy) convention, just specify exactly what you want, explaining the connectors it has to fit to. If people give you the look askance, that's their problem. They'll soon wise up when they find their lack of precision bites them from behind some day. The queues at Maplin were reguarly haunted by people who had bought the wrong plug because they failed to specify it right. The smart ones brought their equipment in. Shlepping a couple of largish boxes up the the shop looks daft but it surely beats a return visit just for a few grams of wrong plug. Given the subtle size difference in DC jacks centre pins, and poor tolerance in some makes of plug, it's not just the techically unsavvy who benefit from producing the business end to the saleman so there's little risk of error.

Convention only makes sense of you're negotiating with people who all understand it AND agree with it. That's rare.

Cinch is a connector company that makes hundreds of types. I've never come across the RCA phono referred to as a Cinch. The shorthand nomenclature, certainly here in the UK, is always Phono.

"Serge Auckland" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com:

It gets worse, some have shrouds that make them half-plug, half-socket, some even have that topology in the actual conductor too, for extra contact surface. When I want something that specific, I observe carefully, then specify a part number the firm selling them would look really stupid to get wrong because it's their own part code. In other words, is I MUST use convention, I pick the one the firm is most likely to know and accept, that way I get the part I want. That's why I like RS and such. Good pictures are indispensible at times.

Most certainly. And it is not the only example of a particular kind of connector coloquially named after the manufacturer. There are many others. But "RCA/Cinch" appears to be the most widely- reconizable name for that kind of connector.

And neither had I until I started reading (international) news- groups such as this one.

As it is here in the US.

You say "Another word for a socket is a jack". I think that is only US usage. Not for the UK.

The Wiki entry for a TRS Connector explains:

"In the UK, the terms jack plug and jack socket are commonly used for the respectively male and female TRS connectors.

In the U.S., a female connector is called a jack."

However even once we straighten out the right term for the gender of a connector that still doesn't really answer the OP's query.

If we leave aside ambiguous words like "jack", he seems to be asking whether it's the socket or the plug that come first in a description of an adaptor/gender changer which says: "X to Y".

Is X the socket and Y the plug?

In th professional world it is. I know guitarists have muddied the water by combining the two.

That doesn't have an answer. A gender changer is the same both ends, so you can't say which comes first. If you are talking about an interseries adaptor, you can talk about e.g. 3.5mm male to quarter inch female. That tells you exact;y what is on each end, and it really doesn't matter which you put first (just turn it around - it will still work).

When it comes to connectors with no obvious gender, you really need to resort to catalogue pictures and part numbers.

With XLR connectors, there are male and female connectors but it is the female connector which is inserted into the male one. See

That's far too sensible! Sometimes suppliers shorten their descriptions almost to the point of total intelligibility.

Here's a UK example of an ambiguous mixed up description . It says "3.5MM JACK PLUG, MONO"

And when the same supplier reverses the direction of the illustration, they give a different description of effectively the same item: "ADAPTOR, 3.5MM S TO PHONO P"

What a muddle that first one is!

At least they both refer to A and B. Is there a convention for which is A and which is B? (Without the photo it might be hard to know which is which.)

There seems to be trend towards using people as content editors (and even creators) who have not a clue about the subject matter.

RadioShack here in the US is getting better, but for a while there, their website featured trendy, small, square "photos" of some part of the merchandise that probably looked "artistic" to the "art director" but was complete nonsense to anyone who knew anything about the goods.

For example, they would show the handle/grip part of the connector, and crop out the actual working end. Combined with the scrambled and incomplete "descriptions" the combined result was a complete dog's breakfast mess of random words and photos.

Fortunately, someone broke through to the management and showed them that they were shooting themselves in the foot by making their online information worse than useless.