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Three soundcards, one set of speakers

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Carnil

Member
Joined
May 29, 2002
Location
Spokane, USA
I've got three soundcards, but only one set of speakers. Would it be possible for me to simply wire together a three-plug jack that would let me drive the speakers from all three cards at once, or would I need some sort of isolation circuitry or an A/B/C switch to do this?
 
You could get a couple of y-adapters from a place like radio shack, but that's not how I'd do it. I would get some sort of switch box or maybe like an old stereo amp to switch between the devices to avoid extra noise and combination of sound signals. Combining all of those inputs into one set of speakers with only adapters could cause some unwanted noise and/or signal loss. What kind of connection do your speakers use?
 
I'd say to try and find the ABC switch. If all 3 sound cards tried to send sound at the same time, you could pop a speaker, or even a sound card with the overload.
That is, of course, if you're using all 3 computers at once.

You can make an ABC switch using a dual pole, triple throw switch (or 3 dual pole switches), a box, and some RCA plugs too. That'd be a cool soldering project.
 
I've got two computers, and three sound cards (one computer has a card for Linux and one for Windows and DOS games), so only two of the cards would be active at a time. If signals from one card feeding back into another won't be a problem, I could use an A/B switch and a Y cable so that when I'm gaming, I've only got one card attached to the speakers, while when I'm doing normal work, both computers are connected.
 
You could use an amplifier with inputs and switches but that's the expensive option... Also depends on the speakers you have.
 
Cheap speakers. I'm not too worried about damaging them, but I don't want to risk damaging the sound cards -- particularly since, if I damage the onboard sound on my old computer, I can't replace it with a PCI soundcard, owing to a lack of available slots.
 
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