Sound degredation with custom-made splitter box

LePhuronn · 13 Apr 2011 at 23:02

Hi all

I'm going to be making myself a 5.1 splitter box so I can switch between my Creative 6.1 system (upmixing from 5.1 as I'll be losing the custom centre-rear channel) and soon-to-be-purchased Roccat Kaves.

Before I go ahead with it, I'd like to check with all you sound gurus if I'll get any appreciable loss in quality, and some advice on the wire to use as it's been a LONG time since I did anything with electronics.

The switch I'll be using is rated for something like 0.5A and 10~20mΩ resistance - doesn't strike me as causing a problem, but I'm rather clueless atm.

Also, what sort of speaker wire should I use to wire my 3.5mm jacks and the switch? Obviously I don't want anything with high resistance, but we're only talking about a bunch of 4cm lengths (if that) between each jack and the switch, so is it going to matter too much? In fact, to make things tidier, could I PCB mount the whole thing and use the copper tracks instead of wires?

Or am I totally barking up the wrong tree here just because I can't find a 5.1 switch box and I don't want to keep switching the leads between speakers and headset?

Ta muchly

LePhuronn · 13 Apr 2011 at 23:42

I've had trouble before using Y cables before - either the sound quality has been awful or very quiet, or a bit distorted. I'll give them another go as a last resort.

To be honest though, I fancy doing something with my hands and making something (and it costs about £5)

LePhuronn · 14 Apr 2011 at 00:02

MikeHunt79 said:
This.

A switch is the way forward here...

And thus we go full circle - I'll have a crack at making the switch and see what happens.

LePhuronn · 14 Apr 2011 at 00:16

MikeHunt79 said:
A good quality DPDT switch will do it, if not you can also get rotary switches which is what most Pre-amps use.

Kinda gone/going down that route at the moment.

Basically, this is what started it all:
http://www.instructables.com/id/35mm-51-Surround-Sound-Switch-Splitter-Box/

Now I have no problem doing the 3 DPDT switches to flip the 3 channels individually, but I fancied doing something a bit more elegant.

I've found a few latching 6PDT push button switches which will do the trick, but wasn't sure about the current and resistance specs being OK. I've also been trying to find a 6 pole 2 way rotary without much luck (plenty of 2 pole 6 way rotaries, but that's not the same thing).