Lets say you have two computers. One computer may be a Mac, and the other one a Windows box. Or, you have a Windows box and a Linux server. Regardless of the exact configuration, unless you have a ton of desk space, you most likely have a KVM switch which allows you to share the same keyboard, monitor, and mouse with both computers. However, one important device is missing - your speakers.
Without an expensive KVM switch, one of those computers is going to have to do without sound. To me that’s just not acceptable. You could get a second set of speakers, but that takes up valuable desk space and just looks messy. So what do you do? You share the speakers with both computers.
Now there are a couple of methods to do this. Both methods will work for just about any situation, however each method has its disadvantages. The good news is whatever method you choose, it’s not going to cost you much at all. The parts needed to share the speakers can all be found at your local Radioshack. So are you ready to get sharing those speakers? I know I am.
The Y-adapter Method
The y-adapter method is the easiest method of the two and will provide the best sound. What the y-adapter method entails is of course a y-adapter, but not just any y-adapter. You need a reverse y-adapter. Tradition speaker y-adapters split the output of a device to two different headphones. This is perfect if you’re sharing your iPod with a friend, but not what you want to accomplish in this situation. You want to get a combiner y-adapter, which will take the output of two different devices and play them through your speakers. Radioshack has just the thing, but I’m sure you’ll be able to find one at most audio stores. If you’re going to be purchasing your y-adapter at a store other than Radioshack, look for a female 1/8″ jack splitting out to two males 1/8″ jacks.
Once you have the y-adapter, installation is easy. Just plug your speaker cable into the female connector on the y-adapter. The two male ends go into the line out ports of each of the two computers. Once that’s connected, enjoy the shared speakers.
Now you’re probably saying, what could be wrong with this method? It seems perfect. Well, in reality it’s not. Just look at the picture of a y-adapter above. Doesn’t look too long, does it? That’s because it’s not. The majority of y-adapters which meet your needs are under one foot in length. This is because the original purpose of such a connector was to share speakers with a modem and a sound card. No one has a stereo output on their modem anymore, but back in the early days of Windows this was standard. Since a modem was typically integrated into a computer or a small box sitting on top of the computer, a short cable worked just fine. So, if your computers are sitting right next to each other, the y-adapter may serve you well, but most likely you’re going to need something longer.
The other downfall of the y-adapter is there is no standard sound volume. One computer could be blasting while the other computer is very soft. This may not be a problem if you have a volume control on your speakers, but assuming you don’t, you’re probably going to want a standard volume.
The Computer to Computer Method
If the y-adapter method does not meet your needs, the computer to computer method will. The way the computer to computer method works is the output of the first computer will feed into the second computer. The second computer will then rebroadcast the first computer’s sound into the speakers. This will eliminate all of the y-adapter’s problems. The cable needed for this setup is typically very long, so your computers won’t have to be right next to each other. In addition, since the output will be coming from one computer, your sound levels will be constant between both computers.
For this type of setup you’ll need a male 1/8″ jack to a male 1/8″ jack cable. Once again RadioShack has just what you’ll need, but you can find the cable at most audio stores.
Once you have the cable, plug the one end into the Line Out of the computer without the speakers. The other end of the cable will then go into the Line In of the computer with the speakers. Now it’s important to note, I would recommend the computer that will have the speakers be a Windows computer. Mac OS X does not support Line In passthrough without a separate program, and on the Linux side of things the configuration will take more time than it’s worth.
Once you have the cable connected, it’s time for the true configuration. On the computer that does not have the speakers, set your sound output volume to somewhere around 80%. You want the sound coming out of that computer to be as loud as possible, but you don’t want to cause distortion, so 80% is the perfect level for this.
Now on the computer with the speakers, open up your volume control. Now look for the Line In volume. Uncheck Mute, if it’s checked. This is important because if you forget to do this step, the audio from the other computer will never output to your speakers.
The final step can be a little tedious. What you’re going to have to do is adjust the Line In volume so it matches the volume of the computer with the speakers. To do this step, I like to listen to some music. What I do is I play the first ten seconds or so of a song that I’m familiar with on the computer with the speakers. I pay close attention to the sound level that it’s outputting at. Once I think I have a good feel for the sound level, I’ll switch to the other computer and play that same part of the song. Once it starts playing, I’ll quickly switch back to the computer with the speakers and adjust the Line In volume to a level that is close to what I heard from that computer. Most likely you won’t get the volume perfect the first time; you’ll probably have to repeat the steps a couple of times. Just remember, there is no perfect volume; it’s what feels right to you.
After you have the Line In volume level set, you can sit back and enjoy your shared speakers. As long as when you want to increase or decrease the volume, you adjust the master volume on the computer with the speakers or with the volume control on your speakers, your sound levels will stay relatively close.
50 Comments
Thats why you use something like this: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=164060 . I cant find their Soho units with the DVI connectors (the one shown in the header of the soho section) bc that is the one i bought here for the office.
Yes, that KVM would work, but it’s an expensive KVM. The whole point of this article was for the people who have cheap KVMs (like myself).
If there was a way to send my sound, in real time, from my laptop to my desktop, across my wireless network, so I wouldn’t have to use any wires to hook my laptop into my good speakers, that would be sweet. Anyone know of a way to do this?
You could setup a local shoutcast server.
Might work, know if there is any application that is made for this though, I’ve googled it a few times, and can’t find anything.
The only problem is the buffering causes a huge lag, almost 30 sec. Anyway to get around that?
There has to be some way to turn of the buffer. It shouldn’t be needed since the LAN traffic should provide ample bandwidth.
Ok, lag is better without buffering, now I’m losing about 5-10 sec for the actual reencoding to 320kbps mp3, anyway to get a little better here?:neutral:
The only thing I can think of is use a lower bitrate. Beyond that I’m out of ideas.
Thanks, but I’ve given up, oh, well.
1) Is there any chance of overdriving the speakers? I assume all speakers are designed to get X power (WATS?)and we would be sending them X*2 power.
2) seems like the Y cable is better. Why not get a Y cable and a M-F extension to cover the distance.
1) I don’t think so. Considering the cables are specially made for situations like this, there is probably a resistor in the y-adapter.
2) That could works just as well. The only reason I prefer the computer bypass method is that both computer can be operating at the same volume without any sudden surprises when switching computers.
Nice forum, the only problem I see is my logitech 5.1 speakers hook up to my computer via two cables - 1 green and 1 black. I believe the black cable plugs into the blue port on my sound card (line in I think) and the green plugs in to the green plug. Any solutions around this?
Endless Nameless, I think your black plug is for an extra output to the speaker, to gain the 5.1 sound. It shouldn’t be going into your line in port unless there is a line in jack somewhere on your speakers. If that’s the case, just remove it from your line in port, the line in method will still work.
These methods are great for 2 computers. My problem is I have 7 computers and a 8 port kvm switch with no audio. Anyway to get sound to at least 4 of these computers with only one set of speakers and without spending $400 on a 8 port kvm audio switch?
Thanks for the info, just what i was looking for. I have a twist on the problem, which is that I have the two computers that you describe, and I also have a laptop that i’d like to be able to incorporate into this situation. Can I do an “out” cable from the laptop to the “in” side of the computer without speakers, then an “out” from the c.w.o.s. into the c.w.s.? (computer with speakers)?
Sure, as long as you set the middle computer to do the same thing as the computer with the speakers, you shouldn’t have a problem.
Sorry sonic, I didn’t see your comment until now. You can do what frayednot just asked. Just daisy-chain the computers from line in port to line out port.
I have the opposite problem…one computer two sets of 5.1 multimedia speakers. Three 3.5mm mini plugs out (green, black, yellow). I need an A/B Switch box with three 3.5mm plugs input and two sets of three 3.5..plugs output.
Y-Method
Do you think this will work?
Use a headphone splitter with volume control, add a coupler to make the male end a female. Then plug the speakers into the coupler. Then use two audio 1/8″ cables to the devices sharing the speakers.
I was going to try, but the headphone splitter is $14.95 and I’d rather not waste the money if it won’t work.
Thanks
Dave
DMassary, why do all that work when a true Y-adapter is cheaper? Just get two audio extension cables if you need more room between the computers.
I was thinking more about the volume control than more room between devices.
Well in that case, I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. A headphone splitter is bidirectional, since I have already used one to input two microphones into a computer.
my problem is as follows…i have a head phone and a speaker…two applications, for example, windows media player and real player are running simultaneously with two different songs being played at the same time….i want the output as real player song in the headphone and windows media player song in the speaker..is there any method to solve this without spending too much?
There may be some professional application out there that could do this, but it won’t be easy. Windows routes all sounds to one line out port, with no ability to route different applications to multiple ports.
One might not want to go with the Y-splitter method. The sound card of one computer would be sending a sound out-put signal to the speakers AND the other computers sound out-put jack. This would eventually destroy both sound cards. Some sort of sound switching device would be advisable. I don’t have first hand experiance with this situation, but I’m wanting to put two computers on one set of speakers myself and read about the above mentioned factoid a couple times on some different forums. What I read seems logical. When ever I hook BOTH computers to the set of speakers, why does the sound suddenly become half as powerful? Where does the other half of the signal go? The other sound card perhaps?
Any good combiner should prevent the sound cards from being damaged.
Regarding your sound issue, could it be that when you hook up the two sound inputs your speakers become mono. Like one computer on the left channel and the other computer on the right channel?
I have a question, I did the computer line in to computer line out method, and i can hear a slight beeping noise in the back ground, is this normal? or maybe i chose a bad audio jack ?
I wouldn’t think that it’s normal. Does the beeping go away when you remove the second computer’s audio? If so, have you tried hooking up the second computer directly to the speakers to see if the computer is omitting beeps?
hi, I tried the second method and it does’nt work if the speakers are connected to windows XP box, however the setup works fine if speakers are connected to linux box (running ubuntu dapper drake). any ideas ??
Iv found a lot of info on how to use 1 set of speakers on one computer..
i would like to know if there is a way to Take two speaker systems and put them both into the same computer.
Iv found a lot of info on how to use 1 set of speakers on **two** computers..
i would like to know if there is a way to Take two speaker systems and put them both into the same computer.
thank you so much for this info! i will go to my radioshack tomorrow and fix this annoying problem i also have. thanks again. i’ll come back and let you know how it worked out for me.
Hi people! I have a question very similar to Justin’s. I have a laptop and a desktop. I use my laptop as a guitar effects processor and I need to use the speakers that are connected to the desktop. The question is: Can I play the guitar connected to my laptop and hear the voice from speakers connected to my desktop via wireless network. Thanks from now
I tried the y-adapter method because the problem with the computer-computer method is that it requires that the ‘host’ be turned on to use the ‘guest’, which seems self-defeating.
But I am having a problem with the y-adapter method: If I am using my Mac Pro while the PC is off (or sleeping) I get distorted audio. If I unplug the adapter from the PC the Mac sounds fine again. I have tried flipping the cable to be sure that isnt the issue. In my investigative genius I have discovered that if I actually unplug the PC power supply but still leave it connected to the y-adapter, I don’t have this issue. So, is the point that even while it’s off my PC’s (on-board) sound card is getting some juice and somehow that is going into the y-adapter and causing the problem. Andâ€â€how can I fix it?! Thanks
Maybe look in your BIOS to see if they is way to disable the sound card during power off.
I will give this a try, but my sound-card is on the motherboard, so I doubt I will have that degree over control, dont ya think? I’ll let you know if this works. Thanks for the suggestion!
Get one of these switches:
http://electronicsusa.com/mk1and2.html
When I do the Y-Adapter solution I get some flaky results. I have a PC and a Macbook. If I’m listening to music on the PC and I go do something on the Macbook that creates a sound, the volume of the music playing from the PC muffles to almost nothing. The same scenario works in reverse as well. After a minute or two of the sound being muffled, it shoots back up to it’s normal volume.
Sounds like the line-out to line-in piggy backing might be a better solution. I just don’t have a male-to-male cable to test it out. I guess I’ll make another trip to RadioShack.
Hi - thanks for the entry.
I had tried to use the Y splitter method but my volume dropped off to a totally unacceptable level.
I’m going to use the computer-to-computer method since it sounds most plausible.
Is there any program/software which runs a sound server and that server is consumed by any other client.
In detail, in the host computer (physically connected to speakers) have a software installed as a windows service or in other way, given its listing serivce to other clients, which will connect to this host.
The configured client, which connected to host, plays a music file, and the output will be played in host computer…
Is there any s/w available like this. please do mail me
if you use the Y adapter method, you will damage your soundcards…and divide the signal in half, and whoever said it is right, it sends the other portion of the signal BACK to the other sound card…its one big curcuit waiting for disaster…thank god i’m not stupid enough to try this with my 300$ sound card. i pity the person who atually takes this advice. and oh, that switch would be nice, but who uses stereo anymorE? i have 5.1 on one pc and 7.1 on another..
i wish someone would just make a software w/ a streaming server to do this..shoutcast is retarded, it lags like a beotch.
itunes will stream across a LAN (provided that both computers are on the same subnet)..but i’m looking for some application where 100% of audio is streamed..not just from a music player…oh well i’m giving up i can’t seem to find anything besides these useless methods that will eventually damage your sound card.
Apparently in KDE Phonon will all you stream sound to computers in your network.
Maybe not ready yet but I’m guessing it will be after mid ‘08.
Ranjit, you need 2 soundcards and a playback application that lets you pick what soundcard to output to, to do what you are describing. I am not sure if WMP or realplayer will let you pick what soundcard to output to. What I did that was somewhat similar to your question is hook up a USB headset (which windows configures as a soundcard) to talk on Ventrilo (which I selected to the headset) while i played games. The game sound come out the speakers while the other people were heard on my headphones.
Sorry, but the advice here to use a simple Y-adapter for this is wrong.
This will NOT result in the best sound.
Background: A computer line out (like most consumer audio line outs) generally has an impedance of around 600 ohms or less and is designed to work into an input of 10,000 ohms or more. No, this is not an “impedance mismatch.” In fact we NEVER “match impedance” in line-level audio for short runs. This is known as a ‘bridged” connection in which the load draws minimal current from the source, much like a voltmeter.
Connecting two such outputs to a single such input with a simple Y-adapter means that each output will be seeing a load impedance of less than 600 ohms! (that is, whatever the OTHER output impedance is, and then subtract a bit more due to being in parallel with the actual input.) This is more than an order of magnitude difference from the design load. It will result in too much current being drawn from the output. This MAY damage the output that is doing the driving, it MAY damage the other output (the one being driven). And it will PROBABLY result in distortion via clipping, or simply very low volume, if the output is unable to supply that much current. See, for example, Rob’s experience (comment 40).
> Any good combiner should prevent the sound cards from being damaged.
Well “any good combiner” might, but a Y-adapter doesn’t qualify. It’s just wires with as near to zero resistance as is practical, so there is absolutely nothing in it that will perform this “prevention” function.
You can use a simple RESISTIVE mixer. You can use a real, active mixer. You can use the computer-to-computer method. But please, don’t use a simple Y adapter.
And if you don’t believe me, please refer to http://www.rane.com/note109.html .
i have a kvm splitter with dvi conntions paid almost 300.00 for it i have a mac and i have a dell i split the 2 i have the wireless keyboard working on both i also have the wireless mouse working as well my problem is that i have a bose surround sound for the computer it has a usb connection i tried a usb hub it didnt work i tried i am going crazy any advice
I can’t believe I never thought of this sooner. I have a Belkin KVM switch that switches sound, but several times I want to watch/listen to TV on my windows machine while I continue typing/mousing on my Linux computer. Luckaly this KVM switch isn’t the best, and if I would switch back and fourth enough times, the mouse and keyboard would switch, but the sound would stay on the Windows computer. This obviously is a less-than-perfect solution, and your Line-in is awesome. The only question I have, is am I sacrificing any quality because I normally plug into black, green and yellow for surround and sub? Thanks!
Mmm… it’s not clear to me what you mean there. To which system are the speakers connected? Anyway, “line in” is a stereo (two channel) input. If you’re thinking you can take front l/r, rear l/r, sub and center from one system and feed it to another system’s line in, that won’t work; you just don’t have the inputs available. Pick one of the above - you probably (almost certainly) want front l/r. So you’ll go from the green (front l/r) jack on one system to the line in (usually blue) on the other.
Now what happens on the second system wrt this line in and your six speaker outputs? Probably, whatever comes into the line in jack will show up at the front l/r outputs on that system. Depending on how you have the speakers configured for the sound card options in the second system, the sound card can probably come up with a reasonable feed for the subwoofer and center, and maybe even something for the rears - but it really doesn’t have any information from the line in signal that could tell it “this sound belongs in the rear.” You just have two channels there, after all.
Possible exception: Maybe your sound card can do some sort of dolby stereo-like processing on that input to come up with a rear channel feed. But to rely on that your first system’s output would have to have the rear information encoded into the signal it sends to its front outputs. This would be unusual, to say the least.
for fucks sake, the y adapter is such an awful idea, as jamie detailed better than i could.
seriously, just buy a cheap audio mixer, that way you have control over each computer’s volume with - omg! - actual sliders! and you can add in way more than two compies, tv, anything with an audio signal.
There’s also software called slimserver that syncs playback of audio between networked PCs
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