Ask Slashdot: Affordable, Functional Audio Mixers?

hfcs asks: "I'm looking for sources for an affordable, 4-6 channel, compact, stereo, line-level audio mixer. In my office I have 4 PCs (Linux, W95, NT, Mac) and CD player, each demanding their own speakers for audio output. Low end pro-sumer stuff (Radio Shack & the like) start at $200 for this, but it's huge. Decent mixers start well above that. A master volume would be nice, but since each device can do it's own output level, so I don't need channel level control. I just want to be able to hook everything up to one nice set of amplified speakers rather than 4 independent mediocre sets without damaging any of the sources. Any suggestions?"

Comments

Build one

[Bigman]

Dont geeks do electronics these days????
Dont splice the wires together because you'll blow up the soundcards.. just use resistors:

pc1 --------/\/\/\/---\
pc2 --------/\/\/\/---*----/\/\/\---- out to spkr
pc3 --------\/\/\/\---/

This scheme should work for as many pcs as you like - the resistors should all be 100 - 1000 ohms. You'll need 2 of these (left and right channels). At a pinch you could use one of those screw-connector blocks to connect the wires to the resistors and wrap the lot in insulation tape to protect it - no soldering burns!!

B^)