X2 pcs, one set of speakers...

doggles

doggles

doggles

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Heya

Any advice on using one set of speakers between two different pcs?

3.5mm connection speakers (just one jack)

One pc has on board sound and the other has a sound card as the on board sound died for some reason.

Considered a Y splitter cable but unsure if this would be wise

Rarely use both pcs at the same time. Just want to be able to switch sound sources without having to crawl under my.desk and plug 3.5mm cable into the other pc.

Thanks for reading
 
A Y splitter will be terrible. Fine for two outputs but not for two inputs. You will have lots of noise and buzzing. Don't waste your money on one.
 
You could make your own with one 3PDT switch (triple pole, double throw). You'd also need some 3.5mm jacks to go from the switch to your pc's, and whatever jacks fit your speakers. cost about 3 quid for the switch and about 3 quid for the jacks. You can get jacks with pre-solder wires so you'd only have to solder to the switch. I made one of these to switch between headphones and speakers on one PC, where the soundcard I have couldn't automatically switch itself. You want 3 poles on the switch so you can fully separate the left, right and ground channels from each source. You'd mount the switch in whatever plastic box you have, or you can also by the box as well, search for "Project Box"
 
I think you've been given an answer and I imagine a RCA switcher box could work (they seem to be around £15-20). I can't think of other solutions, although I know KVM's come up, albeit probably cost more.

I struggled when running two separate PCs in the office (Linux + Windows) up until recently. The solution I ended on was to run two separate DAC/AMPs. I've been running multiple DAC/AMPs for a while (still am) and I've ended up always having two on the desk. It also worked because my active Edifier 2.0 speakers have two RCA inputs although if you can run through one DAC/AMP you don't need this feature, but can be useful. I did try a USB switcher box but that introduced noise irrespective of whether it was keyboard+mouse, or just the DAC/AMP plugged in. So for me that was not a successful option, although I may have just bought the wrong one.
 
Timber said:
Could be, I think that's essentially like the RCA switch box suggested, just using 3.5mm connections, but the same idea.

A few of the reviews mentioned buzzing which I guess you're not going to know until you've tried something like this.
Click to expand...

RCA option might be better quality hardware but you're also introducing adapters all over the show.
 
 
iamgigglz said:
RCA option might be better quality hardware but you're also introducing adapters all over the show.
Click to expand...

True. I wasn't necessarily advocating for RCA over 3.5mm, but I do think whatever the choice it shouldn't degrade audio, or more importantly introduce noise (i.e. buzzing). That's what I imagine is going to be the main risk with these audio switchers.
 
Timber said:
True. I wasn't necessarily advocating for RCA over 3.5mm, but I do think whatever the choice it shouldn't degrade audio, or more importantly introduce noise (i.e. buzzing). That's what I imagine is going to be the main risk with these audio switchers.
Click to expand...

You can get get 3.5mm to RCA cables, no adapters needed
 
Timber said:
Yes, although I assume the response to my post was the assumption the OP is going from 3.5mm to 3.5mm (speakers) and therefore not need RCA anywhere.
Click to expand...

Typically better quality input switches will use RCA. I've seen the "

Panlong 8-Way Av Switch Rca Switcher 8 In 1 Out Composite Video L/R Audio Selector Box For Dvd Stb Game Consoles "​


It has video as well, but maybe the composite I/O could be used for the subwoofer?
 
Thanks everyone for all the advice

Yes I would ideally want to.remain at 3.5mm as those are the speaker.connections I have. Although the above info does mean I could quite easily plug my.stero into my pc now. Which I hadn't really considered if I get a 2 in 2 out option switch with rca adaptors.
 
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