Reddit mentions of GLS Audio 6ft Y-Cable Splitter Cord - 1/8" TRS Stereo to 1/4" TS Mono - 6' Cables 3.5mm (Mini) to 6mm Cord for iPhone, iPod, Computer, and more - Single

EDIT: Corrected diagram based on suggestions below.

Made your solution plan into a diagram for clear graphical representation. The cables needed that Destiny probably doesn't have/didn't order yet:

• ORANGE line - RCA to 1/4" mono TS jack
  
  
  
• BLUE line - 3.5mm stereo to dual 1/4" mono TS jack
  
  
• PINK line - 1/4" mono TS jack to 3.5mm stereo jack

You might be better off just spending $50 more to get the Scarlett 2i2 and some balanced cables.

If you are dead set on this route though, then you can use a cable like THIS

You should be looking for something that is called a stereo breakout cable where one side is either a single 1/4" or 1/8" male jack and splits to XLR or 1/4".

GLS Audio 6ft Y-Cable Splitter Cord - 1/8" TRS Stereo to 1/4" TS Mono - 6' Cables 3.5mm (Mini) to 6mm Cord for iPhone, iPod, Computer, and more - Single https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0062QPERU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_DZzcBbBMJETPS

This would allow you to hook up phones or computers to the sound, use 3/4 inputs. If you ever need a 3rd stereo input use 1 and 2 but turn the balance to the opposite extremes on each

That's a headphone splitter, my friend. Not at all what you want to use for speaker hookups. This boils down to the difference between balanced and unbalanced cables. Unbalanced cables have two conductors; one carries the signal, the other is the ground/shield. A balanced cable has three conductors; one carries the signal, another carries a polarity-flipped but otherwise identical version of that signal, and the last pin is the ground/shield.

Your speakers are looking for a balanced input on the TRS cable, and what it's receiving is two unbalanced signals (i.e. due to the headphone splitter, each speaker is receiving the left side signal on one conductor and the right side signal on the other). That means that each speaker is taking both sides of the signal, flipping the polarity of the right channel, adding them both together, and then amplifying the results. Yikes. That results in no stereo image, no frequency content below ~200Hz, a crazy messy top end, and all of your center channel information disappearing (because it's the same in both channels, therefore the polarity flip cancels it all out).

In order to solve this conundrum, you need to acquire a cable that splits the 3.5mm stereo jack into a separate left and right plug. Such a thing can be found here. Note that each side is an unbalanced cable, but that's okay; your speakers can handle that just fine, it just won't be quite as loud as a balanced setup (6dB quieter, to be precise). I ran my monitors off of a cable like that for a long time before I got a real interface.

Good luck! Let me know if you have any other questions. Electrical issues are a funny business.

Can your drummer play to a click track? If not, don't bother because it won't come out very well.

If the drummer can play to a click track, then the cheapest way to do this is to create a stereo track with the click panned 100% into one ear, like this:

• Left Channel - Click track and bass track for drummer to listen to
  
  
• Right Channel - Bass track without click to send to sound board
  
  Then get a cable like this, put the left jack into a headphone amp for the drummer and the right jack into a DI box to go to the sound board.
  
  
  The not-so-cheap but more versatile way to do this is to get an audio interface with at least 2 outputs and use that with a laptop running Ableton or some other DAW to act as your click track and back tracks and only send the click to one output. This way allows you to mix the levels of the click and bass for your drummer.

You need something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/GLS-Audio-Y-Cable-Splitter-Cord/dp/B0062QPERU/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1494258365&sr=8-20&keywords=mini+jack+to+jack+cable

Or an ordinary minijack to 2xRCA cable and two RCA-to-mono jack adapters.

So I'm not going to pretend to be an audiophile. I have a soundblaster X that I inhereted with regular old left/right/center outputs, and have 0 issues connecting a pair of these speakers to my soundcard audio outputs through a simple splitter

This is the one I have; there is no dongle or plastic piece, so you can split the left and right parts of the cable out to a few feet; perfect for my desk.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0062QPERU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Those are active monitors so a receiver isnt necessary. They are powered already. If you go the monitor route the JBLs are much better speakers.

You'll need this cable at the least to start out
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0062QPERU/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?qid=1453320297&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX118_SY170_QL70&keywords=stereo+trs&dpPl=1&dpID=41giV7MtWQL&ref=plSrch

OR you could find a receiver that has PRE-OUT outputs. Then essentially it's just a preamp. Id look for Denon AVR receivers or equivalent such as the 2105 since you can generally find them for pretty cheap. That way you bypass the noisy circuitry on your computer If there is audible noise AND be able to hook up a subwoofer through the receiver later.

Also be aware though. Monitors have a flat frequency response and that may sound "boring" to you.

Hey folks,

I'm using two JBL LSR 305 studio monitors as desktop speakers, connected to an X570 Aorus Master via a balanced TRS Stereo to 1/4" TS Mono cable. The speakers, computer and monitor are all plugged into the same surge protector.

When a GPU-intense game like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Outer Worlds, Control, etc. is played, I get a headache-inducing buzz (like bees on steroids) coming through the speakers that vary in pitch and intensity depending on what's happening in the game. During cutscenes, the buzz vanishes and then returns once gameplay resumes. My best guess is the buzz strength seems to be tied to GPU fan speed. For reference, I'm using an EVGA 2080 Super XC2.

However, outside of GPU-intense games, the speakers are perfectly quiet and sound great. Audio is crisp and delicious. Even in less GPU-intense games, like League, Arkham Asylum, Gwent, etc. the audio is clear and I don't hear excess static, humming or a bee-like buzz.

After some research, I tried separating the power source and plugging the PC into a different outlet, which helped reduce the noise significantly but not eliminate it. Unfortunately, this option isn't a long-term solution given my apartment layout.

The other suggestions I've seen online are to buy an external DAC or try a ground loop isolator, but the highly-rated GLIs I find on Amazon seem to ruin bass and overall audio quality, and it seems a decent DAC that my motherboard will work with is going to run an extra $70-100 or so, which isn't ideal. Plus, I'm struggling to find a straight answer if a DAC will solve the issue entirely since it only seems to happen when the GPU is whirring away.

Do you have a suggestion for what I could try, or what ground loop isolator or DAC I should look into if those are my only options?

Thanks!

You can use your current setup - just get a cable like this to plug into the DI(s):

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0062QPERU/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?qid=1421822263&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

The venue will take care of getting signal to FoH. It'll just be a couple of XLR's into their stage-box, but you won't have to worry about that part.

This is actually very similar to the setup I currently have, and you have 2 options here to get the console audio into OBS (assuming that's what you use).

1. Just take the audio from the HDMI cable through your Live Gamer HD, it will appear in the mixer when you add the Live Gamer HD as a source.
   
   
2. This is what I'm currently doing. If you want to explicitly control the console audio through the mixer, I use a 3.5mm to dual mono 6.35mm cable (like this) that goes from your monitor/TV headphones out port to one of your mixer's line inputs.
   
   Hope that helps! If you have any other questions just reply to this comment and I'll try help out.

I suspect the dialogue is missing because the XLR input is expecting a balanced signal. What you'll want to do is break out the 3.5mm stereo cable to a pair of 1/4" mono plugs, using something like this, and run those to the subwoofer.

Ground loop, not sure what that is? Why not just 3.5mm straight to the speakers with a 3.5mm Y to XLR?

EDIT: This. https://www.amazon.com/Hosa-CYX-403M-XLR3M-Stereo-Breakout/dp/B000068OEP/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491337535&sr=8-1&keywords=hosa+3.5mm+y+cable+male+xlr

or

https://www.amazon.com/GLS-Audio-Y-Cable-Splitter-Cord/dp/B0062QPERU/ref=sr_1_11?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1491337591&sr=1-11&keywords=3.5+mm+TRS+to+Dual+1%2F4+inch

If you wanted to do the 1/4 inch instead of XLR

People may argue with me, but you can have great results going from you computer's 3.5mm unbalanced output to the 1/4-inch inputs on the speakers. You'll need a splitter cable like this (and maybe a 1/4-inch extension). Unless you have long cable runs to the speakers (more than 10 ft or so) there will be no quality difference. I'm assuming your computer has a decent sound output. If it's a Mac it probably does. The DAC you linked to would need RCA to 1/4-inch cables (NOT XLR to 1/4-inch cables cables) but that would also work.

While correctly configured XLR cables are less likely to pick up noise, that's not likely where your noise will be coming from. Your key word is setup. The correct way to set up any powered speaker is to turn your computer (or whatever source you're using) volume all the way up, then set the volume on each speaker to be as loud as you normally listen. When you turn the volume down at the speakers, that turns down the noise, too. When you turn it down at the computer, the noise stays. That's why this is the best way to do it. These speakers have a sensitivity switch, too. Start with +4 dBu. If that isn't loud enough, change to the -10 dBV setting.

You can use an app your phone to measure the volume. About 90 dB at your listening position is about as loud as you should listen for any extended period of time.

Hope this helps.