Multiple Sound Outputs

Jasoncmor

Jasoncmor

Jasoncmor

Associate
Joined
13 Feb 2010
Posts
611
Location
Bournemouth
Hi all.

I was just wondering weather there was an easy way to connect a PC to multiple speaker set ups without having to swap cables around?

I would like to connect a PC to a pair of PC speakers, a hifi and maybe some headphones.

I wouldn't want them all running together, just be able to switch between them easily.

Cheers, Jason
 
How many outputs do you have?

I use toslink to my amped speakers, then the regular 3.5mm to my soundbar and can plug my headphones into the amp when needed.

I just right click the little speaker icon in bottom right -> playback devices, and change the output, takes 2 seconds.
 
Might need some form of extra sound card, depending on outputs and what you want but definitely doable.

Works quite well (if you don't have too many other people living with) to have different soundcards to different setups too.

Most sound based programs let you pick the output (or "system/direct sound default"). Would be quite possible to have something playing MP3's in the living room, speakers in the room with the computer playing sounds from a game and voice chat, clean, on a headset.

It completely depends on what you want.

For my setup I've got a basic xonar DX soundcard. The 5.1 setup is plugged in optically and the headset on the front audio jacks. It's a tick box in the soundcard control to switch between them.

You could get a USB headset as this would give you a second device to send sound to if you wanted to have different sounds to different outputs at the same time or an extra soundcard and leave the onboard enabled for a pair (or all 3 for the setup I suggested above).

There's some very simple/cheap USB soundcards if you just want to be able to send stereo somewhere and are short on having enough ports.
 
Last edited:
I use multiple soundcards to achieve this. For my headphones I have a USB sound card and fro my speakers I have a second sound card.

To switch output is a simple matter of selecting the output device (Default device) from Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\SOUND

Annoyingly, if an App is using a device (eg you're playing a video on youtube and you then want to switch audio output) you have to stop the playback, change device then restart playback - sometimes I even have to close the app for it to pick up the switch.

I've noticed this on Windows 7 pro and Win 10 pro so it's not a "bug" that's been fixed yet....
 
... I'd recommend a mechanical switch such as the method breadturbo uses due to the absolute control you have - your choice!

You can't get it to output to more than one simultaneously, unless your soundcard has that as a control on it (my old X-Fi titanium allowed it) and then you could plug everything into your soundcard and control it though it's software...
 
Tattysnuc said:
I use multiple soundcards to achieve this. For my headphones I have a USB sound card and fro my speakers I have a second sound card.

To switch output is a simple matter of selecting the output device (Default device) from Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\SOUND

Annoyingly, if an App is using a device (eg you're playing a video on youtube and you then want to switch audio output) you have to stop the playback, change device then restart playback - sometimes I even have to close the app for it to pick up the switch.

I've noticed this on Windows 7 pro and Win 10 pro so it's not a "bug" that's been fixed yet....
Click to expand...

The app will be using the default system sound at the point it starts. It's a config setting it checks on startup and then never really looks at again (usually). You'll usually find an option in most apps/games that let you pick an output device, just switch away, switch back, it should pick up the change in default device :)

The only headset I've seen that can.... usually do the switch live without any messing is the wireless corsair vengeance headset (the older style, can't speak for the modern ones). When you plug the USB stick in, it will switch to it immediately, when you remove, it switches back. Works about... 80% of the time (I'd be interested to know the programming/hack they're using to achieve it too :p ).
 
Last edited:
Cheers for your replies guys.

Don't currently have the computer at the moment, will be building it within the next week or 2.

I would ideally like a switch to switch between each output.

It wont be for simultaneous outputs.

Cheers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom