I have been wanting a Creative Labs E-MU1212 sound card to use exclusively with music. Since it has balanced outs I've been on the look out for something to take advantage of it with... Then I discovered the Studiophile Bx5a speakers by M-Audio. Looks like an awesome match to me! Oh wait, I have headphones that I like to listen to music with too and they're not balanced... 
I've had a switch box project in mind for my home setup for a while, but now its complicated! I really want to make a switch box that takes in one balanced signal and another unbalanced. It would also have balanced and unbalanced outputs. The problem is being able to swap which input each output is using... I want to be able to just put on my headphones, flip a switch, hit play, then beautiful music will play over the headphones.
A relay based switch box really appeals to me such as the one from Twisted Pear Audio. Unfortunately I don't see any way to use it for both balanced & unbalanced, just one or the other! I've read a bit about balanced cables and such but I don't really have a clue on how to make a circuit that could switch back and forth like I want. I've built a CMoy, Pimeta and 2 Mini3s but haven't actually designed any circuits myself. My knowledge of electronics just isn't up to doing a project like this without help!
Could someone please let me know if this project is feasible/reasonable? If it is then I would love some help coming up with a circuit diagram for it. I plan on doing some more research on my own into this but there are plenty of experienced folks on here...
I at least need a decent starting point on how to convert from a set of balanced ins to an unbalanced out and vice versa. I'm also unsure which circuit diagram application to use. I've heard of Eagle, should I use that?
I've had a switch box project in mind for my home setup for a while, but now its complicated! I really want to make a switch box that takes in one balanced signal and another unbalanced. It would also have balanced and unbalanced outputs. The problem is being able to swap which input each output is using... I want to be able to just put on my headphones, flip a switch, hit play, then beautiful music will play over the headphones.
A relay based switch box really appeals to me such as the one from Twisted Pear Audio. Unfortunately I don't see any way to use it for both balanced & unbalanced, just one or the other! I've read a bit about balanced cables and such but I don't really have a clue on how to make a circuit that could switch back and forth like I want. I've built a CMoy, Pimeta and 2 Mini3s but haven't actually designed any circuits myself. My knowledge of electronics just isn't up to doing a project like this without help!
Could someone please let me know if this project is feasible/reasonable? If it is then I would love some help coming up with a circuit diagram for it. I plan on doing some more research on my own into this but there are plenty of experienced folks on here...
I at least need a decent starting point on how to convert from a set of balanced ins to an unbalanced out and vice versa. I'm also unsure which circuit diagram application to use. I've heard of Eagle, should I use that?
