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what do you guys do?

E

eli

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 30, 2003
Messages
1,648
Those of you who have one sound card, and two sound devices, what do you do? For instance, if you have both speakers and headphones.....do you use a switch? I am planning on making my own, but if there's a simple alternative, that would be cool.


thanks
 
My Turtle Beach Santa Cruz soundcard has a system tray icon. I click that and it brings up the control panel. From there I can easily switch between the port that my headphone is plugged into and the port that my speaker is plugged into.
 
Many speaker systems have a headphone out jack, I usually use the one on my receiver if I'm up late and don't want to keep the house up.
 
unless you've got the proper equipment and good cabling, a homemade switch could become a weak spot in a speaker system.
 
No it doesn't. Turtle Beach calls the feature "VersaJack," so look for that in their products. It seems to me that many onboard sound implementations use a multi-purpose analog output jack too.
 
so there is no way i can switch between devices with the av 710...? what about the emu 0404?
 
could i just plug the headphones into another jack, and download some simple software or something...?
 
No, not really The audio controller IC must support configurable inputs/outputs or have some sort of onboard I/O switching mechanism.
 
easiest method, I call it the Bones method, since one of my friends (nicknamed Bones), used this method to switch between his dolby setup and his headphones.

On his main output, he ran a long shielded 1/8"jack extension cord, and anchored it to his desktop so it couldnt fall off, then he did this with the 1/8"jack to RCA converter/interconnect combo as well. When he wanted to switch to headphones, just unplug the speaker lead from the extension cord and plug in your phones.

His method costed all of $4, and there are no "black box" a/v switches to deal with.
 
that sounds like a good sytem, but isn't it rather bad for the jacks to keep plugging them and unplugging them?
 
I just use the headphone output on my receiver when I need to use headphones.
 
I have a Input-output slector switch built into my headphone amp.
Even with my "mediocre equipment" and "cheap handmade silve lace cables" it does not cause any problems at all. :rolleyes:
 
it depends, the way his system is setup all he is wearing out is a 1/4" to 1/8" adaptor for his phones, the 1/8" to RCA adaptor for his dolby setup, and the extension cord itself....so less than $20 in parts, and that's at rat shack markups.

Given it's not a very classy looking setup, but it does work.
 
hmm, is that santa cruz a good card for stereo audio...does it have internal resampling? that versa jack feature seems awesome. :)
 
It holds its own, for a 20-bit/48 kHz soundcard. It's no competitor to the Envy24/Envy24HT class of cards, or anything from E-Mu or RME or any of the high end companies, but it's a solid entry-level card for the music listener or gamer alike. Its well-roundedness and solid drivers have made it a classic for the greater half of a decade, if I'm not mistaken.

Does it have resampling? Yes, without kernel streaming or ASIO, it resamples like any other consumer-level soundcard under Windows NT 4.x and up. You could apply an ASIO4ALL driver if you wanted to bypass resampling by kmixer.
 
Is the Santa Crud still a viable option for a stereo source?
No... not when the AV-710 is cheaper and outclasses it sound quality wise. ;)
 
awww come on... :) the santa cruz is still a good soundcard even today.
how many people have a discerning ear?

between the santa cruz and the av-710 i'd get which ever one i could find for less.
 
My case came with some front audio jacks ... unfortunately, the motherboard's pinout is nonstandard (damn hi-def audio :p). Good thing the mobo came with a 3.25" bay-mounted front audio/USB/Firewire bracket. When I need to use my headset I just plug it into the jacks on the front of the case :D


 
i just plug my headphones into my amp and turn off the speakers. thought i'd get annoyed with it but not so much.
 
My Audigy 2 Platinum has jack sensing and when I plug my headphones into the front panel port it automatically mutes my speakers.
 
BossNoodleKaboodle said:
unless you've got the proper equipment and good cabling, a homemade switch could become a weak spot in a speaker system.
Click to expand...

i wouldnt thing so... with some decent RCA jacks, silver plated copper wrie, silver solder, and a nice metal enclosure (to reduce interference) i think you could make a suitable switch for under $40 that will not be a bottle neck in any sub $500 setup :cool:
 
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