I have red and white RCA plugs on the back of my TV. I connect the cords from those plugs into a connector that converts it to a 3.5mm plug that I can plug into the back of my speakers (like this: http://www.amazon.com/C2G-Cables-40645-Stereo-Adapter/dp/B000J1H4VI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408520459&sr=8-1&keywords=rca+to+3.5mm+converter). Will doing this keep the stereo signal or will it go to mono. I don't know a lot about this technology. I'm wondering because if it does go to mono, I might as well substitue either red or white plug on the back of my tv for my subwoofer cord if switching to just one speaker connection isn't going to hurt the audio.

Thanks,

Brad

You need both the white and the red plugs to be connected to get a stereo signal. If you connect only one you don't get the mono signal but just the left or right signal alone (a correct mono signal would be another mix of left and right signals).

Because such low frequencies as are emitted by subwoofers cannot be spatially located by humans, a subwoofers is not supplied with a stereo signal. However, a subwoofer is usually supplied with a signal preprocessed especially for it. I do not expect that plugging in a half stereo signal would do at all, regardless of potential signal level probelms and such.

If the signal contained bass frequencies, the subwoofer would play them just fine (but of course without midrange or treble).

That said, usually subwoofer line is pre-amplified somewhat, so without amplification the sound could be quiet.

Thanks for your replies. I'm not sure I understand.

The back of my TV has HDMI 1-4, Component Cable 1 and 2 , and Video 1 and 2 inputs. Then there are two red and white jacks separately that don't seem to be related to anything. They are in the "Audio out" "FIX" section. The speaker connected to at least one of those jacks will play audio coming from the TV no matter what "input" is selected. Connecting a separate cord (with 2 male connectors) to either the red or white jacks enables the subwoofer, which I have to control (volume, crossover, etc) myself separately.

I can plug in the red and white connectors (both male) from the "Audio out" section on the TV to both the red and white female jacks into the RCA to 3.5mm Stereo adapter. The 3.5mm is then plugged into the "audio input" jack on the back of the speaker.

So I was wondering if the stereo signal remains intact when I use the RCA to 3.5mm adapter (when the cord is plugged into both the red and white jacks on the TV, or does it get lost and is just converted to mono. If it gets lost, I'll just use one jack for the sound and another for the subwoofer. If I would still get stereo sound, I would use both the red and white plugs on the TV and forget about the subwoofer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_connector

White should be left channel, and red right channel audio.

So yes, if your adapter is correct, stereo will be preserved.

(It makes sense you get "some" audio regardless of what channel you connect to, since well mixed stereo sound always use both channels. But it will not sound like it should. You can also connect a subwoofer to any audio channel, it will only react on the low frequencies, though see previous comments about subwoofers above)