There's a few relatively inexpensive "control room monitor" boxes out that
will give you that ,
and a little more- They're pro-sumer quality, and as the "home-reccers,
your gear is good enough" thread will testify to,
that's ok under the circumstances..

here's a couple of links:

Samson C Control- My nephew has this for his XP/MBOX/ PT LE setup and it
works great, about $100.

http://www.zzounds.com/item--SAMCCONTROL

Presonus Central Station- A little pricier, but seems to spec out ok.
http://www.presonus.com/centralstation.html

Coleman Audio TB4- expensive!

http://www.swee****er.com/store/detail/TB4/

Like I said, I only heard my nephew's setup, and the $100 Samson worked
great for a home rig. I would guess the others are at least that.


Hope this helps

Dave Kowalski
Bennett Studios
http://www.bennettstudios.com





"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...
"Overdog" wrote in message
om

I like to use both headphones and speakers on my computer.
Since there is only one audio out, I spend a lot of time fiddling
around at the back of the computer, plugging and unplugging things.
Also there is a lot of wear and tear on the cables from being plugged
and unplugged. I mostly use 1/8th inch headphone jacks.

There need not be only one audio out on your computer.

You can have more audio outs on your computer by adding sound cards, or
switching to a new sound card with multiple outputs.

When I switch to headphones, I have to turn the sound on the computer
down as low as it can possibly go before it is acceptable. My
headphones are fairly good, but they don't feature any kind of
external volume control. (To the best of my knowledge, an external
volume control is just a potentiometer in series with the speaker.
But nobody seems to sell this.)

Sure they do - check your nearest Radio Shack store for a headphone volume
contol.

My question is, is there some way for me to electronically switch
between speakers and headphones without paying for a full-blown
mixer?

You can also get a splitter cable, and operate your headphones and your
speakers from the same output. You don't have to turn off your headphones,
you can just set them down out of ear-shot.

Finally, you don't need to spend a lot of money on a ixer, if you choose
to go that route. You get one that that do what you want to do for about
$40. Don't look at the cost of an acesssory in terms of just its cost,
consider the cost in the light of the greater enjoyment of that fairly
expensive computer.