Feeding two sources into one set of active speakers

Hank_Marvin

Hank_Marvin

Hank_Marvin

Soldato
Joined
12 Sep 2005
Posts
3,703
Location
Norwich, England
Hello,

What I want to do is setup my old tv in bedroom plus a streamer and a set of active speakers tv has rca out and so would streamer.

But

I want each device to feed the speakers by their own rca cables as I don't want to have to have the tv on to have sound but also I want the tv to have use of speakers for digital tv therefor the speakers can't only be connected to the streamer or tv. Of course I will need a steamer with a android phone app for headless media picking via phone, I see boxee and wd live could work for this.

So the question is could I feed both tv and streamer into speakers, one at a time outputting of course. my thinking is rca out > cable > rca to 3.5mm converter for both tv and streamer and then a 3.5mm splitter so 3.5mm from each device into splitter with the single end going into 3.5mm socket on speakers, do those 3.5mm splitters work in reverse? I don't see why they wouldn't.


Thoughts?


Cheers
 
Need one with a remote really, can't really find anything quite right but I'll dig a bit. Would there be a problem though just using a splitter, there would have course if both we outputting, i read on maplin that it was ok. Of course I dont want to damage anything.

Cheers
 
Nothing is going to blow up. But you will be changing the electrical characteristics that the speakers see from the source. Whether you'll hear any effect is debatable.

What is more likely is to hear some noise because both source circuits are present. Using a reversed splitter means that all three devices are permanently wired together. In other words the active source is feeding signal both the speakers and the other source device at the same time. Even with one device switched off the output circuit represents and electrical load to the rest of the connected devices.

Maplin does a remote controlled switcher for £30. Is that really too much to spend?
 
Yeah I know, just I was trying to keep costs down :)

Yeah Lucid I did see that, it's not too costly.


Looking at more active speakers i've seen quite a few with multiple inputs which could work (2 x rca or 1 rca and a 3.5mm in), although they don't seem to be switched, both always live i suspect but i guess the circuits are kept seperate rather then using my method above.

The other thing is i've realised is volume will have to be controlled by the speakers in my experience anyway when using rca out's. So will have to find some active speakers with a remote.
 
Is the only way for a roku streamer to play content from my server with plex? Can't it just browse over the network like a wd or boxee?
 
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