Thread: Splitting sound card output...

So, for the last few months I have had to stop using my Medusa Headphones, as the breakout box that connected them to my sound card sorta fried. I've primarily switched over to my speaker system, the Logitech x530s. I have a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card, and I was wondering if I could get multiple 3.5mm headphone splitters and split each channel to both the headphones and speakers, muting the headphones when not in use, and turning off the speakers for silent listening.

Basically, what I want to do is replace the breakout box that fried above. It did the work of allowing me to switch between those two outputs on the fly. My way, a little bit more crude, but still effective, I think. What I wanted to know was if splitting the signal this way would diminish the quality of the sound from either source.

Simple question, hopefully simple answer. I just don't want to go and spend even the tiniest amount of money before I know this will work, as I most likely will be buying online.

In theory this should work. There will be a reduction in sound quality, assuming it works, and depending on a lot of things it may not be noticeable at all or it may be glaringly noticeable. However, in theory, this should work. I've run a similar setup before and it worked, but it wasn't exactly the same.

Thanks for the input Mr.E. The only other way I see this working is getting an A/B switch made for 5.1 sound sources. They don't really make them, and I am not much of an engineer (unlike many of the tinkerers that I saw when I worked at Radio Shack), it's gonna be a tough call. I think my best bet is to bite the bullet, buy the individual splitters, and see what happens.