Just when I thought I was out-they pull me back in
virus: WW needs electronics advice
« on: 2004-03-17 17:13:46 »
Are there any electronics experts around here. I need to know if = connecting the sound cards from 2 different PCs through a Y-cord into 1 = sound system (external amp, sub, etc.) will cause any crosstalk or = impedance problems. I thought about using a switch, but I would rather = not.
BTW, I'm not sure what crosstalk or impedance really mean, but I know = enough to suspect they MIGHT be relevant.
...Walter, i can help you here i believe. it's pretty simple actually...just attach the black wire to the back legs of the hamster, make sure that the battery attached to the goat is ni-cad and fully charged, and then climb up the step ladder and throw the cat as close as you can to a 40 degree angle, but make sure it's able to land on its feet - otherwise the mayonnaise covering its tail will splatter...which will probably scare the vietnamese child. if he moves more than a few inches, he'll be out of sync with the beat on the Yanni CD which will result in a poorly timed execution of his spanking the puppy...which means that the dog wont arrive at the ignition point for the prism and the laser....resulting in a possible misfire of the neutral gas cannister. if this happens, drop the gasoline and the oreo cookie and get the hell out of there for at least 20 minutes(for the goat to run out of battery power) then you should be alright to try it again. let me know how it goes.
Are there any electronics experts around here. I need to know if connecting the sound cards from 2 different PCs through a Y-cord into 1 sound system (external amp, sub, etc.) will cause any crosstalk or impedance problems. I thought about using a switch, but I would rather not.
BTW, I'm not sure what crosstalk or impedance really mean, but I know enough to suspect they MIGHT be relevant.
Are there any electronics experts around here. I need to know if connecting the sound cards from 2 different PCs through a Y-cord into 1 sound system (external amp, sub, etc.) will cause any crosstalk or impedance problems. I thought about using a switch, but I would rather not.
BTW, I'm not sure what crosstalk or impedance really mean, but I know enough to suspect they MIGHT be relevant.
Thanks in advance for any advice,
Walter
[Blunderov] First a caveat: I am not an electronics expert. But since nobody else has replied I'll venture my thoughts.
I don't think there would be a problem doing this assuming that the external amp has an input for a digital signal. (Alternatively, the sound cards would need to be able to produce an analogue signal. In this case it's possible that you would need to put a pre-amp into the circuit to produce sufficient signal for the amp to work with.)
If the signal you are working with is digital, as it very likely is, then I don't believe impedance will be a problem. This is a rating of the resistance that an analogue circuit offers to the signal being sent along it (I believe).
Neither do I believe that crosstalk would be a problem, I believe that this is an induction phenomenon and would only relate to analogue systems.
It would probably be helpful if the sound cards were the same make. There is hideous plethora of methods of encoding and decoding video and audio signals and having fewer variables in the system is probably a good idea. That said, you are probably in no real danger here, assuming that the amp has a digital input option: it will either recognize the signal or it won't.
If you are working only with digital it is very unlikely that you will harm anything in any of the systems, so if it was me, I would go ahead and give it a try.
If you are sending a digital signal into an analogue input, you will need a device that converts that signal to an analogue signal first.
These devices are commonly available but, as usual, the more you spend the better the quality. In theory anyway. Here it would be
very prudent to get some well informed advice as to what sort of output levels would be suitable for the input of the amplifier.
I think Bill Roh knows far more about this stuff than I do.
> ...Walter, i can help you here i believe. it's pretty simple > actually...just attach the black wire to the back legs of the hamster, make > sure that the battery attached to the goat is ni-cad and fully charged, and > then climb up the step ladder and throw the cat as close as you can to a 40 > degree angle, but make sure it's able to land on its feet - otherwise the > mayonnaise covering its tail will splatter...which will probably scare the > vietnamese child. if he moves more than a few inches, he'll be out of sync > with the beat on the Yanni CD which will result in a poorly timed execution > of his spanking the puppy...which means that the dog wont arrive at the > ignition point for the prism and the laser....resulting in a possible > misfire of the neutral gas cannister. if this happens, drop the gasoline > and the oreo cookie and get the hell out of there for at least 20 > minutes(for the goat to run out of battery power) then you should be > alright to try it again. let me know how it goes. > > DrSebby. > "Courage...and shuffle the cards". > > ----Original Message Follows---- > From: "Walter Watts" <wlwatts@cox.net> > Reply-To: virus@lucifer.com > To: "virus" <virus@lucifer.com> > Subject: virus: WW needs electronics advice > Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 16:13:46 -0600 > > Are there any electronics experts around here. I need to know if connecting > the sound cards from 2 different PCs through a Y-cord into 1 sound system > (external amp, sub, etc.) will cause any crosstalk or impedance problems. I > thought about using a switch, but I would rather not. > > BTW, I'm not sure what crosstalk or impedance really mean, but I know enough > to suspect they MIGHT be relevant. > > Thanks in advance for any advice, > Walter > > _________________________________________________________________ > Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail > > --- > To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
--
Walter Watts Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
"Pursue the small utopias... nature, music, friendship, love" --Kupferberg--
One sure way to avoid any grounding problems and power leakages is to use optical links.
The devices and cables tend to cost more, though.
> From: Walter Watts > > Are there any electronics experts around here. I need to know if > connecting the sound cards from 2 different PCs through a Y-cord into 1 > sound system (external amp, sub, etc.) will cause any crosstalk or > impedance problems. I thought about using a switch, but I would rather > not. --- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
<Walter> Are there any electronics experts around here. I need to know if connecting the sound cards from 2 different PCs through a Y-cord into 1 sound system (external amp, sub, etc.) will cause any crosstalk or impedance problems. I thought about using a switch, but I would rather not.
BTW, I'm not sure what crosstalk or impedance really mean, but I know enough to suspect they MIGHT be relevant.
Thanks in advance for any advice, Walter
<Kalkor> So, I'm going to assume you're talking about the SPEAKER OUT line on your sound cards, the one that's labeled GREEN. This is not a line-level output, it is a higher amplitude to drive speakers. It does not require a high-impedance input to plug into, as it is designed to go into an 8- or 16-ohm speaker system most likely. (8-16 ohm is low impedance)
So, with this in mind, you are probably safe to plug this SPKR OUT line into the LINE IN on some piece of stereo amplification equipment, but bear in mind that LINE IN usually wants line-level, which is a much smaller amplitude signal, and the LINE IN on your stereo is going to be HIGH impedance. Bottom line: turn down the sound card input before you plug a SPKR OUT to a LINE IN.
Ohm's Law, which states that current is proportional to voltage, and inversely proportional to impedance (or restistance), is represented as I=E/R (I=Current in Amperes, E=Volts, R=Resistance in ohms).
To explain impedance, I'll use the analogy my first electronics teacher came up with: Voltage (E) is water pressure, Current (I) is rate of flow, and Resistance (R) is inverse of diameter of hole. Increase resistance, at the same voltage, and you decrease rate of flow. Increase voltage, at the same resistance, and you increase rate of flow.
So plugging a spkr output into a high-impedance, line-level input will only result in less draw on the supply circuit. The opposite situation, plugging a line-level into a speaker, will simply result in max current draw but of course, amplitude remains the same and you wont be able to drive a speaker. (not enough water pressure to open the valve at the end of the hose? taking the analogy too far...)
Now, you may or may not have a line-level out on your sound card, it should be labeled BLACK (?). If you have this, you should try using it first to plug into a line-level in (you mentioned preamp, they want a low level signal to start amplifying hehehehhe).
So, crosstalk. This is an induction issue, when you have modulated or unmodulated signals being induced somewhere there are already other signals present. Especially in a semiconductor, because then you have mixing (sum and difference frequencies, etc) and the effect is that you can add audio artifacts to other audio signals for instance. This is more of a radio problem and you shouldn't encounter it.
So, the final question is whether to plug two devices into the same line-level input. Since the input is high impedance, you should not have a problem with excessive current draw from the supply devices. However, you now have three devices hooked together in parallel, one high impedance and two possibly low? The devices have the potential to damage each other. My suggestion would be to couple both signals into the input via inductance (an audio transformer) to prevent a problem. Or better yet, do like I do in the living room:
I have one cheap bookshelf stereo system with one stereo input. If I'm using the puter to watch movies in there, I plug the puter into it. If I'm using the dvd player or game machine or something else, I plug THAT in there. I have to mess with the volume control on my devices of course; some are line-level, and the computer is spkr out. Oh well, just a teensy bit of extra work ;-}
I hope my rambling makes a little sense; I just finished finals and indeed am completely DONE with my courses now. See you guys around some!
I'm no expert, but my experience with sound card to amp hook-up was bad with anything other than optical cable. Too much hum, and I don't know why, but I could never seem to ground out the problem. Good Luck. Bill
On Mar 18, 2004, at 5:44 PM, Jei wrote:
> One sure way to avoid any grounding problems > and power leakages is to use optical links. > > The devices and cables tend to cost more, though. > >> From: Walter Watts >> >> Are there any electronics experts around here. I need to know if >> connecting the sound cards from 2 different PCs through a Y-cord into >> 1 >> sound system (external amp, sub, etc.) will cause any crosstalk or >> impedance problems. I thought about using a switch, but I would rather >> not. > --- > To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to > <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l> >
> <Walter> > Are there any electronics experts around here. I need to know if connecting > the sound cards from 2 different PCs through a Y-cord into 1 sound system > (external amp, sub, etc.) will cause any crosstalk or impedance problems. I > thought about using a switch, but I would rather not. > > BTW, I'm not sure what crosstalk or impedance really mean, but I know > enough > to suspect they MIGHT be relevant. > > Thanks in advance for any advice, > Walter >
Usually, I don't reply to my own posts, but I'll make an exception.
I'm pretty sure Norah Jones is in her twenties, and she CAN play and sing music.
Walter
Walter Watts wrote:
> That would sure be fun to play with, but I don't think it would help any musicians in their teens and twenties. > > They would have to learn how to play music before they could enhance it. > > Up with ageism!!!! > > Walter > > ---- > This message was posted by Walter Watts to the Virus 2004 board on Church of Virus BBS. > <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=61;action=display;threadid=30051> > --- > To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
--
Walter Watts Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc.
"Pursue the small utopias... nature, music, friendship, love" --Kupferberg--
I can agree with that whole hearterdly. She is a talent. I hope she keeps her head as she matures. Have you listened to Diana Krall? More mature, pays piano and sings in a sultry and seductive manner. I think she is in her 30s. What about the clasic ladies? Aretha, the Queen of Soul, or Patsy Cline?
Author
Logged
