So I bought a new laptop but it only has one jack/port, for headsets. No jack for external loudspeakers, which is what I had hoped for. I see there are splitter cable things on Amazon that you can put into the microphone jack and it will allow you to put in headset and microphone at the same time, but will it allow you to put in headset and external loudspeakers at the same time?
I don’t get it.
Do you want to use your headsets at the same time as your external speakers?
No - I’ll only be using the loudspeakers for the most part - but I wanted to know if the same splitter cable things(such as this one)that allow a headset and microphone to operate at the same time, are just as good for plugging a set of external loudspeakers into as well.
Not those particular splitters. They connect the second device to input contacts. Connecting speakers to a microphone input won’t hurt anything, but it won’t make any sound either. However, a plain old headphone splitter will do the job.
Gorsnak is correct. A standard headphone splitter is what you want.
The typical speaker/headphone output on a laptop is optimized for relatively high impedance loads, when compared to the output of a typical stereo receiver or amplifier (usually 4 to 16 ohms). If you try to power a set of low-impedance speakers in parallel (which is what you would be doing) with a set of low-impedance headphones, you may be disappointed in the result. However, I’m guessing that you will be using a set of powered external speakers and they usually have significantly higher impedance. And you say that you will only be running one or the other at a time. I doubt that any combination you run will actually hurt the laptop, but staying within the optimal impedance range will make a noticeable difference in volume.
You could avoid the concerns of impedance matching and the need for a splitter by going with a USB laptop speaker (unless you are committed to using speakers you already have).
I think the OP wants to connect to a set of desktop speakers or the like which are self-powered. That splitter will work if that’s the case.
Some of those desktop speakers have a headphone passthru/amp built in, but, I don’t think any have mic pass through as well.
The speakers I use with my laptop have a head phone jack. When I plug in the head phones, it mutes the speakers.
Yes, I already have external desktop speakers which are powered on their own.
Thats a nonstandard thing - its for some brands on computer only. It converts the nonstandard socket into two standard sockets, and the extra feature is the microphone pin. So the non-standard socket doesn’t have LINE OUT.
The headphone socket only outputs a signal in the current going to the headphones.
The speakers require LINE levels, which is a voltage signal.
Line level inputs are very high impedance, and so the headphone output’s circuit cannot pump any current through, and the voltage square waves +max to -max constantly. Very poor quality sound.
So you put a resistor in where a headphone speaker belongs, and then the voltage across the resistor ( because the resistor is a linear device … ohms law… ) is an accurate representation of the current through the resistor - which is the signal … That is all a headphone to line level convertor is…a resistor for each missing speaker.
A speaker doesn’t produce the required voltage signal, a speaker converts the current signal to a signal in the mechanical power… (the movement of the air… ) Doesn’t have linear voltage …
OK, lets try to distil the advice.
A laptop will only drive self powered speakers. It cannot power speakers that do not have internal amplifiers. That is easy.
The laptop probably has a TRRS socket. Using an adaptor that splits out the connector to mic and headphones is a start. If you take the headphone output from that adaptor you can add a second splitter that splits the headphone output into two, and send one side to the (powered) speakers, and use the others for the headphones, leaving the microphone to connect to the mic end of the adaptor. Thus you get both headset and speakers connected.