Dual inputs for speakers

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SanchoP

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Is there such thing as an adaptor that allows you to plug two sources into one speaker set?

If not, I'd like to make one. I have the required cables from hi-fi corp and i need some guidelines for splicing them together, and if it will even work.

I have 2x 3.5 male jack, each with about 1m of cable attached to it. I also have 1 female jack, also with a metre of cable attached.

My plan is to join the 2 'male' cables together and then attach them to the end of the 'female' cable. Thus each make cable will plug into a source and my speakers will plug into the end of the female cable.

Does this have any hope of working? What if signal from my PC decides to travel towards my iPod, instead of the speakers? Explosion?
 
no ipod outputs signal then input in auxillary.
Besides is millivolts we talking about.
I think a ipod has built in protection function by means of a transistor and diode.i am not sure
 
The speakers i'm getting (z-2300) don't have aux input as far as i'm aware...
 
connect the Ipod to the "line input" of the soundcard of your pc and the speakers with the "line out" or "Spkr" of your soundcard. It can work the way you descriped but I think that it is not good for the soundcard and Ipod. You can also use a low cost "mixer" to mix the output of the pc and Ipod together
 
Hein_JHB said:
connect the Ipod to the "line input" of the soundcard of your pc and the speakers with the "line out" or "Spkr" of your soundcard. It can work the way you descriped but I think that it is not good for the soundcard and Ipod.
Click to expand...

But this won't work unless the PC is on...
 
Hein_JHB said:
You can also use a low cost "mixer" to mix the output of the pc and Ipod together
Click to expand...

Interesting idea, which I'll use as a last resort. Otherwise I'll try and make my little connector thing, and to make sure I don't damage anything, I just won't have the iPod plugged in when I use the PC and I'll make sure the PC is off when I play music from the iPod...
 
Zakspeed have audio switches. It has 2 souces and a output with a switch to select source.

Or build one yourself you need a little plastic box and a 4 pole double throw switch.
 
Gunny said:
Zakspeed have audio switches. It has 2 souces and a output with a switch to select source.

Or build one yourself you need a little plastic box and a 4 pole double throw switch.
Click to expand...

Where can I get one of those Zakspeed switches? Can you make them both play at the same time? I'm not in Joburg btw. 4 pole double throw switch? Where can I get one of those? I like to do as much as possible myself, so I quite like that idea, which is pretty much my original plan...
 
Both playing at the same time is not such a good idea if you don't have an audio mixer.

Any electronics shop should have those switches just tell them what you are trying to achieve and they will point you in the right direction.
 
When properly designed equipment is turned off, it goes into a high-Z (high impedance) state. What you are worried about (if I understand correctly) is that current may decide to travel up to the iPod instead of it going to your speakers. This will happen, but only very little (due to leakage currents), unless your PC is putting out more than the rated breakdown threshold of the iPod. I wouldn't worry.
 
You can buy an adapter (male on one side and 2 female on the other side) for 3.5mm jacks at any department store (Game, Makro, etc). You could probably also find it at Incredible, or other computer stores. They are very cheap.
One thing to make sure of is that the output of your iPod + PC is <= rated input of your speakers, because if they go at the same time, the peaks could cause damage.
 
sn3rd said:
You can buy an adapter (male on one side and 2 female on the other side) for 3.5mm jacks at any department store (Game, Makro, etc). You could probably also find it at Incredible, or other computer stores. They are very cheap.
Click to expand...

I've got one of those, but that's for plugging two speakers or whatever into one source... But i suppose if I bought some more cables I could bend it to my needs.

I was going to get a Creative set that had aux for an iPod or whatever, but now I'm getting Z-2300s which don't have this, so I'm trying to emulate it however I can...
 
Surely it's the same though? At the end of the day, a connection is a connection. No other components involved, so it's not one-way. Unless I'm missing something?
 
Mkay I think I see what you're saying. Correct me if I'm wrong:
You have 2 audio sources that each have a male 3.5mm (or can be made to have one wit a male-to-male cable), and a speaker set wit a male (or could be made to have one wit a male-to-male cable). So you want to know if you get an adapter to connect up 3 males, 2 on one side, 1 on the other?
I've never seen a single adapter that does this,but I'm sure one exists
 
But if you can't find one, you can make pretty much any combination using male-to-female convertors (or female-to-male). This isn't a very elegant-looking solution, though.

Another option is to get CompuCable or someone to make what you want. Or you could make it yourself. Or you could make a make-shift thing,which may not look nice, but at least it gives cool geek credibility ;)
 
OK, now I'm pretty sure that's what you meant (damn, gotta learn to read more carefully in future). The safest option would be to make an adapter and use diodes to ensure one-way operation. I say this because of one concern (probably not too serious): that the speakers will attempt to pull too much current, thus exceeding the threshold of your iPod and yanking it from hi-Z into output
 
The reason why I say it isn't THAT much of a concern is because the current it may pull will have to come from the iPod's battery, which won't be able to supply that much current ANYway. Nonetheless, I have experienced some irritating situations where I have blown a microprocessor port because I pulled too much current out of it, pulling it out of hi-Z.

As with everything, measurements are probably a good idea. Let me know how it goes
 
My speakers haven't arrived yet, but they're on their way, so I can start experimenting soon.

The only problem is that I live in sunny St Francis, about an hour away from Port Elizabeth, so getting hold of all of this stuff is hard. Also my technical ability as far as electronics goes is pretty limited.

What I could do, allowing me to use my 2xfemale, 1xmale adapter would be to plug a male-male cable into both my PC and iPod, thus transforming them to males, and plug a female-female cable into the speakers, transforming into female.

Just to clear up, some funny stuff could happen to the iPod, but definitely not to the PC? Then it will remain permanently plugged into the PC, and I'll make sure the PC is off before plugging in the iPod... I don't mind not being able to play them at the same time if it poses a bit of a problem...

I'd like to get a mixer, but that's prob gonna cost a few hundred, which I don't want to spend...
 
Bout the cables: is there an echo in here? :p
The PC should be fine. But I think the iPod should be fine too. Any electronics suppliers in your area? Some of the suppliers in Gauteng deliver.
Do you specifically want to play both sources at the same time?
 
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