Hosa YMR-197 Stereo Breakout Cable – 3.5mm TRS Female to Dual RCA Male
Hosa YMR-197 Stereo Breakout Cable – 3.5mm TRS Female to Dual RCA Male
Six inches of pure practicality — the adapter that finally lets your modern device talk to your older gear, cleanly and without fuss.
Who This Cable Is For
The Hosa YMR-197 is for anyone who has ever stared at the back of a stereo receiver, mixer, or powered speaker and realized their laptop, phone, or audio interface only has a 3.5mm output. It's one of the most common connection gaps in audio — and this compact Y-cable solves it cleanly. Plug the female 3.5mm TRS end into your headphone jack or stereo output, and the color-coded RCA males (black for left, red for right) drop right into the RCA inputs on the other end. At just six inches, it keeps your connections tidy and eliminates the awkward slack of a longer adapter cable. This is a staple piece for home studios, DJ setups, rehearsal spaces, and any musician who works across a mix of modern and vintage gear.
Key Highlights
- Converts a single stereo 3.5mm TRS female jack to left and right RCA male outputs
- Color-coded connectors — black for left, red for right — eliminate guesswork every time
- Six-inch length keeps connections clean and close without loose cable hanging around
- Female 3.5mm end accepts a standard 3.5mm TRS plug from any device or cable
- Built by Hosa Technology, backed by their lifetime warranty for the original purchaser
- A simple, durable solution for one of the most common connection mismatches in audio
Why You'll Love It
Solves a Real Problem
RCA inputs are everywhere — on home stereo receivers, studio monitors, powered PA speakers, mixing boards, and DJ gear. The 3.5mm stereo output is equally universal on laptops, phones, audio interfaces, and media players. The YMR-197 bridges the two with no signal conversion, no loss of quality, and no complicated setup. Plug it in and it works.
Smart Form Factor
The six-inch length is intentional. It is short enough that your connections stay compact and organized — no coiling up extra cable behind a rack or desk — but long enough to reach from one panel to an adjacent port without straining the connectors. The female 3.5mm end also means you can use any existing 3.5mm cable on the other side for extended runs.
Confidence in the Brand
Hosa has been building reliable, working-musician cables for decades. The YMR-197 reflects that same philosophy: solid construction, proper color coding, and a lifetime warranty that backs it up. When you need a connection to work every single time — at rehearsal, at a gig, or in the studio — Hosa's track record gives you one less thing to worry about.
Great Fit For
- Connecting a laptop or phone headphone output to a home stereo or powered speakers with RCA inputs
- Running a 3.5mm audio interface output into RCA mixer or monitor inputs
- DJ setups bridging a modern controller or media player to a mixer with RCA channels
- Home studio producers routing stereo playback to legacy monitors or A/B systems
- Musicians connecting a portable recording device or field recorder to RCA-equipped playback gear
- Anyone building a clean, minimal cable solution between consumer and pro audio equipment
How It Gets Used
The female 3.5mm TRS end of the YMR-197 receives the stereo signal — from a headphone jack, line output, or the end of a 3.5mm TRS cable. That single stereo signal is then split into two separate mono paths: the left channel exits through the black RCA plug and the right channel exits through the red RCA plug. Both signals are unbalanced, which is standard for RCA connections, and both carry their respective channel cleanly to whatever device they are plugged into.
Because the female end accepts a plug rather than being a fixed cable run, the YMR-197 is also commonly used as a termination adapter — drop it onto the end of a longer 3.5mm cable to achieve any run length you need while keeping the RCA side compact and directly connected to your gear.
Specifications
There's something quietly satisfying about the right adapter. You find it, plug it in, and two pieces of gear that had no business talking to each other suddenly work together perfectly. That's the YMR-197 — small, specific, and exactly right for the job.
If you are building out a home studio, wiring up a rehearsal room, or just trying to get your laptop to play through your studio monitors, this is one of those cables you will reach for constantly. And if you want to talk through your setup before ordering — what you have, what you are trying to connect, what will actually work best — we are happy to help sort it out.
Call or text us at 814-371-5666. That kind of conversation is genuinely one of our favorite things.