Like many other super users I have many computers both at home and in the office. They are connected together with a KVM. What options exist to combine the audio from many systems so I only need a single set of speakers or headphones.
I want to be able to hear sounds from all the computers at the same time. I want to be playing music, video, or something entertaining on one computer while I am working on another. I want to hear the beeps and sound effects on the system I am working on while music or something is playing on another. So a simple switch really isn't want I want.
Currently I have an older mixer hooked up, but it takes up a huge amount of desk space. I am looking for alternatives.
To sum up, I am looking for:
- a device that will accept two to four stereo 3.5mm line-level audio sources and will merge the audio and provide 1 line level output.
- I don't need individual volume controls for each input, I can control that on the computers.
- I don't want to switch between the audio sources, I want audio from many sources at once.
- I would prefer a product I can buy, instead of something I have to build.
- I want something with a small form factor.
Answer
Here's a 4 channel stereo passive (unpowered) mixer, USD 50 at Amazon:
If you can deal with switching between sources, there's a $5 option, 4 input stereo passive selector:
There's also the daisy-chain option. Since you'll need a bunch of 3.5mm-3.5mm stereo cables anyway, you could run them from one computer to the other and just plug your headphones into the last one.
This assumes you have a stereo line-in on your computers.
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