How can i do this?

alexh173 · 17 Feb 2013 at 13:21

Ok so what i want to do is: Have my PC And my laptop connected to my headset, I also want my speakers connected to my PC but NOT to my laptop. I need to be able to hear the laptop and the PC through the headset at the same time. The problem i have is that my headset only has one input (RCA) and the only way i could think of connecting them was to use a Y splitter coming out of my PC to split audio between the headset and speakers and then use another Y splitter going into the headset to plug the laptop and the PC into, obviously this didn't work and i could hear my laptop through my speakers. Any help appreciated.

tom_nieto · 17 Feb 2013 at 13:33

Y splitter from PC. One connected to speakers, the other into line in/mic on laptop. Headset out from laptop. Seems terribly complicated! What are you doing on both the machines?

lucid · 17 Feb 2013 at 13:33

You need a mixer. More than that, you need a mixer with the capability to produce two different output mixes; one for your 'phones and the other for the speakers. The big question though is do you have the sort of money required to make this happen? Rough guess would be £200+

unrealrocks · 17 Feb 2013 at 14:41

As lucid said - you need a mixer which can create more than one output - basically a main mix consisting of both inputs going to your headset, then an aux channel which goes to your speakers.

the Behringer UB802 is probably the cheapest option for this. Although you wouldn't use the auxes you could put the PC on the tape loop and that would allow you to switch it on for the main mix but not the control room mix ... giving you your two outputs! These mixers can be had for around £40 and they are really handy little units for doing odd routing like that. The quality isn't 'top end' but I have 2-3 of them for general AV work and they are very robust

alexh173 · 17 Feb 2013 at 16:53

tom_nieto: I use the laptop mainly for Skype, It does not have a line in and the mic port is connected to my headset.

Also I think one of these would do the job fine but it appears to be out of stock everywhere: http://www.stoweblank.com/tinymix

So the mixer would work for me?

thanks

unrealrocks · 17 Feb 2013 at 17:05

alexh173 said:
tom_nieto: I use the laptop mainly for Skype, It does not have a line in and the mic port is connected to my headset.

Also I think one of these would do the job fine but it appears to be out of stock everywhere: http://www.stoweblank.com/tinymix

So the mixer would work for me?

thanks

That 'mixer' would only allow you to connect two devices to one output. So you could use it to connect the laptop and PC to one other source - but you could do that just with a couple of inputs on the amp and just switch between them.