Audioquest Evergreen 3.5mm Mini to RCA - 8m (26 ft 3 in)

AudioQuest Evergreen — 3.5mm Mini to RCA Analogue Interconnect

The Evergreen 3.5mm Mini to RCA is the bridge-format variant of AudioQuest's Evergreen analogue interconnect, designed to connect any device with a 3.5mm headphone or auxiliary output to any component with standard RCA inputs. It uses identical internal construction to the RCA-to-RCA and 3.5mm-to-3.5mm versions of the Evergreen — solid Long-Grain Copper (LGC) conductors, Asymmetrical Double-Balanced geometry, foamed-polyethylene insulation, and Metal-Layer Noise-Dissipation — with a gold-plated male 3.5mm stereo mini plug at the source end splitting to a pair of gold-plated male RCA plugs at the amplifier end. Like all Evergreen variants, it sits in the Bridges & Falls series above the Tower and below the Golden Gate.

The Most Common Connection in Modern Audio

The 3.5mm-to-RCA connection is arguably the most frequently needed analogue audio link in contemporary systems. It covers the gap between portable and desktop digital sources — which almost universally output via 3.5mm — and traditional hi-fi amplification, which almost universally accepts RCA. The most common applications include connecting a portable USB DAC (such as AudioQuest's own DragonFly Black, Red, or Cobalt) to an integrated amplifier, stereo receiver, or AV receiver's analogue input; running a laptop, tablet, or smartphone headphone output into a hi-fi system; linking a portable music player to powered speakers with RCA inputs; and feeding a TV's 3.5mm headphone output into a separate stereo amplifier.

In each of these scenarios, the cable is the sole analogue link between the source's output stage and the amplifier's input stage. Everything the source has done to produce a clean analogue signal — the DAC conversion, the output amplification, the volume control — is preserved or degraded by the quality of this single cable. A generic 3.5mm-to-RCA cable with stranded copper, PVC insulation, and a basic braided shield that dumps captured interference directly into the ground plane will undo a meaningful portion of what a good source component achieves. The Evergreen applies AudioQuest's entry-level audiophile-grade construction to this critical link.

Solid Long-Grain Copper Conductors

The conductors are solid Long-Grain Copper — not stranded. Strand-interaction distortion, caused by electrical and magnetic coupling between the individual thin wires in a stranded conductor, is one of the largest sources of signal degradation in conventional cables. It manifests as a harshness and compression of dynamic contrasts that is often mistaken for a characteristic of the source component rather than the cable. Solid conductors eliminate this problem entirely. The copper itself is Long-Grain, with fewer grain boundaries, fewer oxide inclusions, and fewer impurities than standard OFHC copper. Since the conductor surface carries the full current density at all frequencies, surface purity directly defines the conductor's overall performance — a principle that AudioQuest applies consistently from the Evergreen through to their reference-level cables.

Moving up the Bridges & Falls range, the Golden Gate 3.5mm Mini to RCA replaces LGC with Perfect-Surface Copper (PSC), where proprietary processing keeps the conductor surface smoother and more oxide-free throughout manufacture. The Big Sur 3.5mm Mini to RCA steps further to PSC+ copper and upgrades to gold-plated Purple Copper RCA terminations.

Insulation and Noise-Dissipation

Both conductors are insulated with foamed polyethylene — nitrogen-injected to maximise air content. Any solid insulation material adjacent to a conductor absorbs energy from the signal's electromagnetic field, stores it, and releases it out of time with the original signal, creating a smearing effect that degrades detail, imaging, and the sense of space in the recording. Because air absorbs almost no energy and polyethylene is a low-loss material with a benign distortion profile, the air-filled foam version minimises this dielectric effect.

AudioQuest's Metal-Layer Noise-Dissipation System (NDS) provides 100% shield coverage while addressing a problem that conventional shielding creates rather than solves. Most cable shields capture incoming radio-frequency interference effectively, but then drain that captured energy straight to the equipment's ground plane, modulating the ground reference and introducing noise into the signal path. The NDS acts as a secondary barrier that absorbs and reflects most of the captured RFI before it reaches the ground-connected shield layer, preventing this ground-plane contamination. All internal conductors are direction-controlled — oriented during manufacture to direct RF noise propagation in the optimal direction, indicated by arrows on the cable jacket.

Geometry

The Evergreen uses AudioQuest's Asymmetrical Double-Balanced geometry, purpose-designed for single-ended (unbalanced) applications. Many competing cables use a single conductor path for both the ground and the shield, forcing the shield into double duty as an audio conductor and compromising both its shielding effectiveness and its signal-carrying quality. The Double-Balanced design separates these functions entirely, with dedicated signal and ground conductors and a separate shield handling only noise rejection. The asymmetric element of the geometry delivers lower impedance on the ground path, contributing to a richer, more dynamic presentation.

Terminations

The source end carries a single gold-plated 3.5mm stereo mini plug; the amplifier end splits to a pair of gold-plated male RCA plugs with stamped ground shells. All terminations are cold-welded rather than soldered. AudioQuest's cold-weld system uses a combination of high pressure and silver-impregnated contact paste to create the bond between conductor and plug, avoiding the introduction of heat (which alters the crystalline structure of the copper at the termination point) and solder (a relatively poor conductor that creates an impedance discontinuity at the joint). The stamped ground shells allow the metal to be selected for its low-distortion properties rather than its machinability. Stereophile awarded the Evergreen Recommended Component status, noting the cable's build quality and flexibility alongside its sonic performance.

Build and Practical Considerations

The cable is finished in the Evergreen's signature green-on-black nylon braid jacket, which is more resistant to kinking and abrasion than PVC and well suited to setups where the cable may be routed behind equipment, coiled for storage, or connected and disconnected regularly. The nylon braid does not carry a CL3/FT4 in-wall rating — the Tower 3.5mm Mini to RCA is the appropriate choice within the Bridges & Falls series where building codes require in-wall-rated cable.

The Evergreen 3.5mm Mini to RCA is available in ten lengths from 0.6m to 20m, covering everything from a short desktop connection between a DragonFly and an amplifier to a long run across a room to a zone amplifier or AV receiver in a separate rack. For connections where both devices use 3.5mm sockets, the Evergreen 3.5mm Mini to Mini variant offers identical internal construction with a 3.5mm stereo mini plug at each end.

Specifications