Many Amiga Audio into one speaker

[rjd324]

The speakers just have a male audio jack. I have two systems. I have a splitter cable for each system. I have to manually change this every time.


Is what is in the diagram possible?

[Daedalus]

Do you want to have a switchbox so you can easily switch them without plugging and unplugging, or a mixer so you can hear both at once? Both are possible, and can probably be found for a small price. Switchboxes are easily found on Amazon or anywhere, and can be found with 3.5mm jacks or RCAs. Mixers can be passive (cheap and no PSU required, but reduce the overall volume), or active (more expensive, need a power supply, no drop in original volume).

From the diagram it looks like you want to mix them, but directly connecting two signals like that usually won't work very well.

[rjd324]

Hello,

I would never have both systems on at the same time. The diagram does show a mixing, but since only one system would be on then this would kind of be like a switch, right? The switch being which ever system is powered on.

Just wondering if the diagram is a bad idea? If not, then I do not need a switch and this is an incredibly cheap and easy thing to do.

[Daedalus]

It shouldn't do any harm to try it, but you might find that the volume ends up being very low when it's connected like that because the output circuitry of the other machine drags the signal down (regardless of whether it's turned on or not). Try it anyway, and then check out a passive mixer. If you're ok with a soldering iron, you could make a passive mixer for peanuts using some connectors and a few resistors.

[Reynolds]

I'd buy a simple mixer which solves the issue in no time. I have one I've used way back but now I use a hifi audio amplifier (e.g. a home theatre audio stuff) so I let that small to retire.

[pandy71]

Combining by simple connecting may lead to muffled audio (combined impedance - resistors + capacitors) also unpowered Amiga may be visible as non linear load (due semiconductor junctions). Ideally you should have active buffer that separate both outputs so they are fully independent - this lead to already proposed active mixer or some DPDT switch/relay.

[rjd324]

Thanks all. I'll report back after experimentation

[Lektroid]

I use a small Alesis mixer to mix my A1200, A600, C64 & Vic20, With the amigas, I pan the left and right about 20% each to give a stereo image without totally different sounds coming from each speaker. The C64 has a dual SID; 6581 on the left and 8580 on the right - I have these hard panned. The mixer also features reverb, in which I add a very small amount to give depth to the sound.