Hardware Speaker / Headphone Splitter Question

Raiser

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Hey guys,

I recently noticed that I have no explicit "Line Out" or "Earphone" jack at the back of my computer.
This is not my photo, but this is pretty much exactly like mine: Photo

For those that can't read the jack labels, there are:
Mic In (Pink) | Side Speaker (Gray)
Front (Green) | Rear Speaker (Black)
Line In (Blue) | Center Bass (Yellow)

After doing some quick research, I've come to the conclusion that most modern systems have the "Line Out" (headphone) as part of the Front / Center speaker jack. This would explain the headphone port on one of my speakers.
However, I need to plug a headphone jack somewhere near the back of my computer because my keyboard has a headphone jack (I would like to plug it in there), but it has a headphone plug that is attached to the USB which needs to be plugged in, both of which end up near the back of my system.

How would a splitter like this work? (With my center speaker going into one female port, the headphone jack going into the other, and the male end into the "Center" jack).
3.5mm-splitter-stereo-2-female-1-male.jpg

Basically:
Speaker jack on tower
 

marcus134

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the adapter is the right one.
you should be using the green hole for headphone/ stereo speaker as the center is "supposed" to be mono and should only be used in a 5.1/7.1 setup

there's also that for less dangling wires
http://www.amazon.com/Cables-To-Go-Stereo-Adapter/dp/B000J1BRY8/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1334284658&sr=8-10
 

yellowsnowcone

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Basically all current computers are this way. A good headphone amp is typically also a good line amp, so why pay for another buffer and jack, when most people will only be using it one way? Splitting it like you want will work just fine, too.
 

Raiser

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Thanks for the replies! Initially, I was completely shocked at how I didn't have a "Line Out" label. Good to know about what you guys mentioned.

But I would like to repeat the question at the bottom of the post:
Would I get sound from my speakers *and* my headphones with everything setup like above (with headphones plugged in obviously)? Or would the sound only come out of one?
I would hate to have this setup, plug in my headphones and have sound coming out of the speakers still. (I am hoping to have sound only come out of the speakers when headphones aren't plugged in, and sound only coming out of the headphones when they are plugged in).
 

marcus134

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the thing you're looking at is just a plain "Y" splitter (it's not a switch, it's not an amp with an output selector), it simply sends electrical signal from 1 source to 2 output, end of story.

for the results, I'm gonna assume that:
  1. you have powered pc speakers ( like 99.9% of pc speaker available on the market)
  2. your speakers doesn't let sound leak when powered off (unless having a piece of junk for speakers)
speakers powered on: sound will come out from both
speakers powered down: sound sound will only come out from your head phones

also headphones should be connected to the green one
 

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