Audio Mixer recommendation?

Hey Folks,

I have a KVM passthrough setup where both guest and host have their own sound cards. They are both connected to a logitech 5.1 X530 setup via a passive audio mixer I rigged up. This allows both systems to play audio to the same speakers.

At the moment I am having some issues with the audio mixer as some of the stereo jacks don’t make proper connection with all the bands on the female PCB connectors requiring some re-seating and wiggling to get proper connection. I used what was available locally at the time and it worked great for about a year. I am having issues with left and center channel connection on two separate PCB connectors and no amount of wiggling or re-seating is working anymore.

I am not too familiar with audio equipment and wanted to know if there is any mixer available online that would facilitate this task and not burst the pocket? I am also looking at buying proper components online and build it over properly.

A little ghetto looking but its got solid connections and is hidden away behind the PC:

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What you are looking for a is called a zone or matrix mixer.

An 80% jank-free solution would be a DAP-Audio IMix 7.3


You would hook up GOB from computer 1 into channel 1, 2 & 3, GOB from computer two into 4, 5 & the Aux In. (Connectors are RCA’s in the back)
You then press Zone buttons as G = 1, O = 2 and B = 3

The Aux in has a volume controll, the knob above the headphone jack :wink:


When you just want a switch between the two computers, hook up G, O & B into the back and then use the selection buttons above the faders in the front:


image

Misinterpreted OP, following solution only works for Stereo!

In a 4 in, 4 out situation, something like the ART Splitmix4 would work.
You put all your audio signals into the Mixer inputs, then use a 1/4" TRS patch cable (1ft/30cm will do) like this:
image
from the Mixer out to the splitter Input.

You may need 1/4 to 3/8 adapters.

Thank you for this info, currently reviewing.

I was looking at cheap simple 6 channel audio mixers on amazon which do have the right quantity of inputs I need but they all seem to have only 2 output. I require 3 outputs to connect to the 5.2 for the front LR, rear LR and center/ sub.

I can always make another one using some better PCB connectors. The ones I used initially were pretty crappy as some of them I bought did not make connections to the bands on the stereo jacks at all.

“normal” mixers only output stereo (and maybe have a Control room out that can listen in on inputs)

Bigger console mixers have groups you can assign inputs to and maybe send the groups out along side main out.

Matrix mixers (like the one I mentioned) allow you to combine and distribute several inputs to several outputs.


Neutrik does not have 3.5mm (or 3/8) connectors. I personally like the Cliff FT6320. Never had one of those go bad on me.

Thanks for the recommendations and explanations, based on what I need it for I may just build a new one with better components.

I will look at the Cliff FT6320. I was looking for one with threaded neck and locking crew to get rid of using hot glue to hold it in place but the threaded necks all seem to short to work anyway.

Maybe look into metal enclosures. They have thinner walls than plastic ones.

Got a much better PCB jack and built another. Still a bit lazy, no bread board but it works…

Only to find out that I had the same problem as before. After some investigation I found out that there is a break somewhere along the front channel wire of the logitech speakers :roll_eyes:…poor troubleshooting on my end as I didn’t perform any checks on the original mixer.

So instead of fixing the issue, I wiggled the wire until I regained both front channel connections and carefully left it as is to hopefully return someday and repair it… :sweat_smile:

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This is probably more then you are looking for, but the bahringer x-air series of digital mixers are quite reasonably priced for what you get and they are fully capable of reviving ether XLR balance inputs or your standard TS connectors. The control interface is all in software and there mixer control software is available for ipad, android, mac, windows, linux, and even arm 32 so you can run it on raspberry pi. There are even rack mountable versions so you could use them if you had some servers running in a rack or you had other audio equipment. Also some of them are digital interfaces as well if you want to record sound or MIDI to a computer over USB you can.

https://www.behringer.com/catalog.html?catalog=Category&category=C-BEHRINGER-MIXINGCONSOLES-DIGITALMIXERS

this is the one that I use

https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=P0BI8