Lexicon Cinch
Name of a US-American connector manufacturer. Today, the name is used synonymously with a type of coaxial plug that is widely used in hi-fi and video equipment. It is also known as RCA plug or phono plug in the English-speaking world.
The signal transmission is asymmetrical, the inner contact of the RCA plug carries the signal, the outer contact is the ground contact. One criticism of the plug is that the inner contact is connected before the ground contact when plugged in. This can cause a lot of noise when plugged in. It is therefore recommended to plug only when the device is switched off.
The connector type is used for different purposes. Often the purpose can be recognized by a color coding, but this is not always reliable. An overview of the purposes and the associated color coding is:
- White: Analog Audio. For stereo the left channel, for surround sound the left front channel.
- Red: Analog Audio. For stereo, the right channel; for surround sound, the right front channel. For video, also the red component or the chroma signal (Pr).
- Orange: Digital Audio (S/P-DIF)
- Yellow: Composite Video
- Green: Analog Audio. For surround, the center channel. For video, also the green component or the luminance signal (Y).
Purple: Analog audio. For surround, the LFE channel (or subwoofer).
- Blue: Analog Audio. The left surround channel. For video, the blue component or the chroma signal (Pb).
Grey: Analogue Audio. The right surround channel.
- Brown: Analog Audio. The left rear surround channel.
- Beige: Analog Audio. The right rear surround channel
With analogue audio, consumer line levels are generally used. In some cases, other levels apply (e.g. for connections for record players - phono).
See also:
- Wikipedia article: RCA
- Knowledge in the Hifi Forum: overview-of-connectors