Digital Optical Switcher/Splitter

MasterZoen

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Feb 3, 2009
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Hey, everyone, I'm looking for a way to get two sources of optical audio, my PC and my consoles, sent to two different decoders at the same time, an Astro A50 headphones MixAmp TX and a Sony HT-CT660 sound bar. My 5 consoles are connected to the A50's and the sound bar via an HDMI switcher that outputs Optical at the same time as the HDMI that I've had for a while. The only thing missing is a way to connect my PC to both the headphones and the sound bar via optical.

The Octava 4 x 1 HDMI Audio switch with ARC and Optical Audio output is almost exactly what I'm looking for, but it's far too expensive for what I'm willing to pay and I would still need to split the optical out for the PC audio. Can anyone suggest a similar switcher/splitter that will let me keep both arms and legs?

Edit: I noticed I wasn't as concise in my needs as I should have been, that will teach me to post before bed.

I need optical out from the PC and from the HDMI switcher/converter to go to the optical in of the Headphones, and I also need the optical out from the PC to go to the sound bar at the same time.

I've considered using optical Y-adapters but nearly every review I've seen of these devices mentions sever signal degradation, if not outright failure. That might not be an issue for me, however, as the entire setup will carry a signal through approx. 10 feet of space, but some of the reviews on amazon mentioned signal loss at 2 feet after splitting/splicing... Yikes! I'd need 2 of them, as well as more cables: one adapter to split audio from PC to headset and sound bar, one cable from PC adapter to headset adapter, and one adapter to combine audio from PC and console into headset, and finally one cable from headset adapter to headset. The smallest cable Monoprice sells is 1.5 ft. The optical out from PC is a 3 ft. mini TOSLINK cable that Monoprice does not have a smaller length of and the optical to sound bar would need to be at least 6 ft. If I replaced the cable from the HDMI switch with a 1.5, and the others I bought were 1.5 that would still be nearly 15 ft. through 2 splitter/splicers. That's a lot of potential signal degradation.

So long as the combined price is under $60, I don't mind buying 2 or 3 different items to solve this but would prefer something that is remote operated or is constantly sending a signal from both sources/to both sources since I'll be around 15 ft from the setup.
 

MasterZoen

Distinguished
Feb 3, 2009
7
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18,510


Thanks, I have actually considered that, as I really like Monoprice since their products usually have great reliabilty. I'm actually using a couple of Monoprice HDMI Switchers for the consoles, but I see that I wasn't clear in what I'm looking for. I need 2 sources to go to 1 destination and 1 of those source to go to another destination. I need optical out from pc and optical out from consoles to go to the headphones optical in, and I need optical out from pc to go to the soundbar optical in, as well. I could use 2 of these but I'm going to be around 15 feet away from the setup, so something that is always splitting/splicing the sources or remote controlled would be preferable. If push comes to shove I'll just eat the effort and walk up, but hopefully you have another idea?