Single set of speakers for two different computers?

[cottontails2]

I bought a splitter audio cable (two female to one male) to use my speakers on both my Mac Mini and my PC, but while the Mac Mini audio has normal volume levels, on my PC the volume completely maxed sounds very quiet. This my first time attempting something like this so i don't know if i'm approaching it wrong. The goal is to use a single set of speakers simultaneously on both the PC and Mac without having to buy a switch or a second set of speakers, any help is appreciated.

[DrMacintosh]

If you swap the connection between the Mac mini and the PC do the audio level change at all? What about plugging just the PC or the Mac into the speaker? If so it's either the speaker not amplifying one of the two outputs (doubt the speaker is built this way) or the PC has a low quality AMP compared to the Mac mini and inherently has better line out audio quality (more believable). 

[cottontails2]

I need to make a correction: the cable is actually two male to one female, the male ends plug into the mac and the pc and the female end plugs into the speakers.

 

My speakers work just fine plugged into the Mac alone as well as the PC alone. But simultaneously it is only the PC that ends up with the low volume swapping the connection doesn't change anything. The audio cable is plugged in on the green port on the back of my motherboard which is the Asus ROG Maximus XI Gene.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

39 minutes ago, Cottontails said:

I bought a splitter audio cable (two female to one male) to use my speakers on both my Mac Mini and my PC, but while the Mac Mini audio has normal volume levels, on my PC the volume completely maxed sounds very quiet. This my first time attempting something like this so i don't know if i'm approaching it wrong. The goal is to use a single set of speakers simultaneously on both the PC and Mac without having to buy a switch or a second set of speakers, any help is appreciated.

The way I handle switching audio in for my desk speakers between my laptop and desktop is just passing the audio through my monitor instead (provided your monitor does have an audio out and not only in). That way, the moment you switch inputs on the monitor to switch between the two, so does the audio. 

 

To be clear, the DP from my desktop and HDMI from my laptop (via a docking station) carries both audio and video. Both are plugged into my monitor without any KVM. My monitor then outputs the audio to my desk speakers that are plugged to the audio out. 

[ShearMe]

You should use a proper mixer, which has resistors to prevent one source from grounding out on the other's output circuit.

 

https://www.amazon.com/TENEALAY-powered-control-passive-X21/dp/B09WDMYYBP

[cottontails2]

3 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

The way I handle switching audio in for my desk speakers between my laptop and desktop is just passing the audio through my monitor instead (provided your monitor does have an audio out and not only in). That way, the moment you switch inputs on the monitor to switch between the two, so does the audio. 

 

To be clear, the DP from my desktop and HDMI from my laptop (via a docking station) carries both audio and video. Both are plugged into my monitor without any KVM. My monitor then outputs the audio to my desk speakers that are plugged to the audio out. 

The problem with that is that i'm using dual monitors, one for the Mac and one for the PC.

 

3 minutes ago, ShearMe said:

You should use a proper mixer, which has resistors to prevent one source from grounding out on the other's output circuit.

 

https://www.amazon.com/TENEALAY-powered-control-passive-X21/dp/B09WDMYYBP

I think this is what i'm looking for, thank you very much.