2 PCs to 1 set of speakers, long distance

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Red Squirrel

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I have two PCs, Windows machine for gaming and Linux for every day use, they're in my server room with long cables running to my office. Great setup, except the audio could be done better. Right now I have two audio cables coming up, then go to a splitter, then two the speakers. I probably could have put the spitter downstairs, not sure why I did it that way TBH... but needless to say, I get lot of noise doing this, as these are not even shielded.

I want to do something better, perhaps involving a mixer in the server room where the PCs are and one amplified cable going up. I imagine that would be better for less noise. Willing to change speakers if I have to, as I don't think you can feed regular computer speakers with an amplified signal as it's expecting a non amplified one.

What would you recommend to accomplish this? A full blown mixer board/amp is probably overkill. Is it perhaps just the thing of using shielded cables and keeping it the way it is now?

Originally was going to use the KVM switch's audio feature, but I kind of want both PCs to be able to produce sound at same time, like I might decide to watch something on a side screen while playing a game or something.
 
Run digital audio. You can either get computer speakers that have digital audio inputs, or get a digital->analog converter to put at your station.
 
How would that work? What do I need to buy? Not sure what you mean by digital, like it converts it to something that runs digitally over the cable instead of analog? What about mixing the two together?
 
Digital SPDIF, whether optical or coaxial. Your motherboard or sound card might not support that though. It doesn't really degrade over distance, and is noise-free. I'm not really sure I understand what you mean about mixing them together. Do you use a Y-cable to pipe the sound from two different PCs into a single set of speakers?
 
Yeah right now I use a Y adapter. It's probably not the proper way of doing it, and I imagine that would not work with digital. I checked and both motherboards have a SPDIF port, it's like a squarish port. Come to think of it, is that what that fibre port is for that I've seen on some systems? This one is just a square but it's probably a cover. Never actually used that before so not too sure how it works. I have a lot of fibre cables from an old SAN but I don't imagine it would be the same connector as these are RX/TX.
 
Yes, optical SPDIF is fiber optic but a different spec than the other kinds. SPDIF ports have little spring-loaded doors covering them to keep dust and gunk out. You can't really combine two SPDIF inputs, though I guess you could get a DAC with two inputs, or two DACs. That is expensive and cumbersome though. Using an amplifier upstream would also be problematic, because turning it on/off might be a problem, as would volume changes.
 
Instead of a Y cable, you might try plugging output of one computer A into line in of computer B and speakers into computer B. It might help a bit with your noise anyway. If computer B can output digitally (including the line in from computer A), then definitely run a long spdif cable and get a DAC/speakers that accept spdif directly.
 
So is this what I need?

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B005LJQPE0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A5OISQXXT6ZH0
(confused about the "gold plated" part though... isn’t it fibre optic?)

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00KCRYIWM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3MI752HIJW5ED

Plug optical cable into PC then box at other end and plug speakers in box, correct?

For splitting, I'll try the suggestion of plugging one PC into the other. Failing that what other options do I have? Do they make small mixer boards that will take two inputs and output digitally out?
 
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Crap, I forgot to mention I'm on Linux. I have a feeling it wont work, because stuff like that often ends up being rocket science in Linux to get working. I realized this when I notice that on the windows box the spdif plug is lit up but on the Linux one it's not, and sure enough in the sound options I see nothing about selecting that as an input.

So is there a way I can just mix the two PCs together and then send it by spdif and then convert it back to analog at the speakers? Like some kind of little box or something that lets me mix two together?

Worse case, is there a way to convert from analog to digital? I can use the analog output then go digital then go back to analog upstairs.
 
You shouldn't need to go digital for speaker wires (and in fact you'd always need an amplifier on the speaker end to do so), only maybe line-level stuff with high impedance... I've run long speaker wires all over the place with no issue. If you ARE running line level signals by using powered speakers or a second amplifier, my suggestion would be to use a receiver with a zone 2 output and passive speakers, though I suppose that may cost you more money. Edit: It does sound like you are running line level audio... No offense, but why do some people seem to think that amplified "PC speakers" are the answer to everything? You'd probably spend as much on a separate DAC and ADC as you would on just buying appropriate speakers. Maybe even more.

Otherwise... Are you near high-power transmitters? Did you run speaker wires close to and along with power wires?

I run Linux mainly as well and it can be a real pain in the ass to configure audio properly for sure. You may need to set some ALSA and/or PulseAudio config stuff to enable digital output. Should be doable though...
 
You'd run analog from the Linux PC to the Windows PC, and have the line-in on the Windows PC enabled so it outputs that signal over the digital (in Win7, you go to sound properties, then recording, then find the Line In, hit properties, and enable Listen to this device in the Listen tab).

Running speaker wire long distance is great, but it requires an amp near the source and speakers that take line-level input. It sounds like he has computer speakers with built-in amps that take low-power input.
 
kumquat said:
It sounds like he has computer speakers with built-in amps that take low-power input.
Click to expand...

Right, but what I'm curious about is why some people think PC speakers are so amazing that they'd consider buying DACs and ADCs and all sorts of things just to make them usable rather than just buying the right stuff? Audio is not a some game of "what do I need to buy to make PC speakers work in any given situation?". While I'm sure OP is not this bad, I've even seen people hook up PC speakers for audio in their CAR... (though I guess that would actually be less bad since PC speakers often take 12v already)

So my point, then, is don't spend money on DACs or ADCs for this.

Though the line in thing should more or less work if he keeps the Windows machine on all the time...
 
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Because a DAC is $20 and allows him to use the speakers he already has, instead of purchasing an amplifier and new nearfield monitors for hundreds of dollars.

The PC speakers also probably let him control volume easily at the listening area without some sort of line-level potentiometer, and let him plug in headphones.
 
I'd go digital coax/optical if it were me but I recently had to deal with analog noise/hum with a long run in my living room. I ended up using audio over Cat-5 baluns and it took the noise away. They're pretty cheap too. Splitting the analog signal can be done with an adapter on the receiving end. (so it's less susceptible to noise introduced via splitter)
 
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Do they even make computer speakers that take an amplified output? It crossed my mind to get a small 1U amp and then run a 48v sound output upstairs but don't think the speakers would like that. That and not sure if an amplified output would start to cause interference on the other cabling going up such as USB. Everything is running in a nice neat bundle and going through a small hole in the floor. I did this knowing interference might be an issue and I'd deal with it as it happens. I don't want cables all over I wanted it in a nice bundle.

The windows PC will not always be turned on, so I don't want to pass audio through it first, probably pass audio through the Linux one first, and hope that Linux allows me to set the correct settings to pass the sound from the line input and play it, basically like a PA system. If not I'll have to figure out how to split or worse case buy another DAC and cable and then split at the speakers.

I'll wait and see what happens though, still waiting for the DAC and cable to come in. Amazon can be very slow when it comes to 3rd party sellers so not expecting it any time soon. The guy delivering it in a canoe is probably not even past Japan yet. :D
 
They don't really make computer speakers without amplifiers, though some companies like Audioengine do. A lot of people who want high sound quality use studio monitors, though most studio monitors tend to be active (amps built in) anyway. Studio monitors are intended for nearfield listening.

Powered speaker cable would not cause interference with USB and power and whatnot.. however, audio signals you're using now are very low power and susceptible to picking up noise from other nearby cables. So your concerns in that respect are sort of opposite.

I really think optical or coax digital is the only good way for you to move audio from your computers to your workstation. Amplified wire works fine, but you'd need to buy all new equipment at significant expense and you'd give up a significant amount of convenience.
 
Just pull RCA cables from the computer to an amplifier you have in the room you actually use the computers in. From the amp you pull leads to your actual speakers. If you need to hear two different audio sources at the same time you can buy a 40 dollar 2 channel mixer, connect the mixer to mix the audio before the amplifier.
 
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