Headphones and speakers together (1 Viewer)

wjw

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July 13, 2008
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I think this is a variation on other questions about audio output and setup.

I specifically want to have my MP sound output over both my speakers (optical out to a Sony receiver to control the speakers) and headphones simultaneously - and am having great difficulty getting this to work. Either/or is easy - together not!

The reason for wanting to do this is that my hearing is deteriorating as the years roll by (I already have hearing aids which are OK for normal speech/conversational use but which really don't do all that well for music/films etc. For this I take the hearing aids out and use headphones where I can control the volume and quality of the sound to suit me. My wife has no such hearing problem and always wants the sound at a lower level than me. So the ideal solution would be the "standard" speakers for her and headphones which have their own volume etc. controls for me.

So. has anyone ever managed to do this?

Theoretically this can be configured in WIn 10 - but I've never made this work. I have also tried the Voicemeeter software, which works fine, but unfortunately works in such a way that there is an audio stream permanently active so Windows will never sleep/hibernate.

Look forward to any comments.
 

CyberSimian

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  • June 10, 2013
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    I specifically want to have my MP sound output over both my speakers (optical out to a Sony receiver to control the speakers) and headphones simultaneously
    This hardware solution might work (but I have no personal experience of it). This particular unit uses an HDMI input, so you would need to have an HDMI output on your HTPC, and an HDMI input on your TV. You then connect the optical output from the splitter to your Sony amplifier, and the analogue audio output to the sender unit for your wireless headphones:

    HTPC ---> (HDMI cable) ---> splitter unit
    splitter unit ---> (HDMI cable) ---> TV
    splitter unit ---> (optical cable) ---> Sony amplifier
    splitter unit ---> (analogue cable) --- sender unit for headphones

    -- from CyberSimian in the UK
     

    wjw

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    July 13, 2008
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    Hi CyberSimian,

    Thanks for the reply and suggestion. I had looked for some kind of hardware solution (unsuccessfully) and your suggestion looks promising.

    However since posting the questionI have realised that MP itself provides a solution! Powerscheduler in Expert Settings mode provides an override function to put Windows into sleep/hibernation regardless of any activity that might be going on outside MP. So, in this case, where the audio stream is being driven quite independently by Voicemeeter - even when nothing is actually playing - invoking the Powerscheduler functionality puts my PC into hibernation after the allotted time.

    Since this PC is a dedicated media centre run by MP this suits me fine. Another bonus of this approach is that because of the way Voicemeeter works the two outputs are completely independent and carry their own volume etc. controls - and because the splitting is taking place on the PC the headphones can be connected via Bluetooth rather than over what would have to be really rather long cable. So now I can control the volume of what I hear from the headset itself while my wife has control of the remote and can set the speakers to be at whatever level she wants.
     

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