Audio out through 2 USB ports simultaneously?

KardnalForgotHisPassword · Nov 18th, 2004, 11:43 PM

A friend of mine has a laptop, and two sets of USB headphones. He wants to know if there's anyway to set it up so that he can have audio coming out of *both* headsets. This is so he and his wife can watch a movie in bed, without waking up the sleeping baby.

It seems he can only set one output source. Is there anyway to get it to do more then one?

(Yes, I know it would be easier to just get him a splitter, and two sets of analog head phones, but he has the USB ones, and wants to use them if he can)

AtomicDog · Nov 19th, 2004, 09:54 AM

well, there's a little program from Rogue Amoeba software called Detour for $12/US that allows you to control all of the audio outputs from your mac. For example, your system alerts can be redirected to your built in speaker on the mac while your iTunes sound can be routed through your headphones. This may do the trick for your friend.

Rogue Amoeba Software

KardnalForgotHisPassword · Nov 19th, 2004, 02:01 PM

Thanks for the link AD,

It turns out that Rogue Amodba *can't* split the output of one app to two different sources. They say they may be able to in the future, but as of now, no dice.

AtomicDog · Nov 19th, 2004, 04:25 PM

Well, that certainly sucks to put it mildly. Hmmm....I've looked around in terms of shareware and stuff, and there's not really too many options. The only other thing that might work but wouldn't be cost effective is to look at mobile audio interfaces from a company such as M-Audio They have some fantastic products that might be able to serve your friend's needs. However, as I mentioned earlier, it would be costly and probably run upwards of a couple of hundred bucks. And that really wouldn't be worth it just to get a second set of headphones working unless they'd get alternate use of the audio box. Sorry I can't help much more than that. Hopefully a computer savvy audiophile may be able to help out with this dilemma.