What's the best way to connect two iPods to one set of amplified speakers?

Question

I have a unique stereo set up scenario that I am looking to figure out. I share an office with another person and we have a really nice set of speakers that we use to play music on.

The problem is we both have iphone/ipods with our respective music on and when we have to switch the audio source we have to walk the really long audio cable to the other person. With the length of the cable and laziness of not wanting to walk to get the cable from the other persons desk I am looking for another way.

I have tried bluetooth/wifi receivers but there is a lot of wireless traffic in the office and it cuts out and quality is poor. My next idea was getting an audio Y splitter and running two shorter cables that will reach each desk rather the one long that reaches both. The issue I see though is those are made to have one audio source going to 2 speakers and not 2 audio sources going to one speaker. Would that work? Are those cable bidirectional? If that won't work I am open to other suggestions.

This is an electronics question, not related to music appreciation, at all. I think it should be closed as off-topic. Possibly ask on *Electrical Engineering SE*. — user3169, Apr 01 '15 at 16:15
@user3169 while true, a big part of being a fan of music is how we listen to it which a home stereo system one way people listen to music. We really haven't decided on whether we should allow questions like this and now may be a good time to talk about it. — Dom, Apr 01 '15 at 16:28

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 01 '15 at 15:37

3

Not all that unique... back in the days when people used hi-fi amps, having an input selector was a fairly basic facility! Anyway you could use something like http://www.vetco.net/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=10996 or http://electronicsusa.com/mk1and2.html. Alternatively, you could try a little mixer.

The Y cable could work OK but electrically one iPod/iPhone would be 'loading' the other one so it would be better to unplug the one that wasn't playing - and then there's a danger that the unplugged 'prong' might pick up some RF noise. So it might not be an ideal solution.

answered Apr 01 '15 at 15:37

That is what I figured for the Y cable. I thought I would have Issues with noise. The mixer/input selector sounds like a good option. Do you know if there are any mixer/input selector that can automatic select depending on where it detect an audio source from? It would be a amazing if I could hit pause on my iphone and my Coworker hit play on his and the mix auto switched to that input. If that does not exist is there is one that has a remote that can be used to change the input can you can recommend? – Daniel Apr 02 '15 at 15:39
That would be clever but I've not heard of it as a standalone box available commercially, though here's one you can make : http://cre.ations.net/creation/4-channel-automatic-stereo-audio-switcher... the problem with the more sophisticated solutions is that they might end up costing more than just getting an amp with a remote control! – Apr 02 '15 at 15:54

What's the best way to connect two iPods to one set of amplified speakers?

1 Answers1