do-it-yourself

Audio-out Splitter
For Your Laptop
Why share a single earphone pair with your friend while watching a DVD
on your laptop? Here we have an audio-out splitter for you!

 Vasuki Prasad and right chan-

nels for both the

Y
ou have purchased a DVD of ICs are connected
the latest bollywood flick. And together. That is,
your friend has joined you to the IN(R) of IC1
watch it on your laptop at night. Since is connected to
you don’t want to disturb your par- IN(R) of IC2. The
ents sleeping in the same room, you same applies to
have no other option but to use the the left-channel
earphone pair to listen to the audio. inputs too.
But sharing a single outphone pair The amount
with your friend means the stereo ef- of input signal
fect would be lost. Fig. 1: Block diagram of the laptop audio-out splitter using USB entering the ICs
In a situation like this, you feel the is controlled by
need for an audio-out (headphone) with a low the voltage divider for each channel
splitter. HP and other laptops do come external input: four 47-kilo-ohm potentiometers
with audio splitters, but these share component are used for the four power amplifiers.
one single volume control: A volume count. While Since the input resistance of the IC
setting may be too high for you, while the LM386 is very high, the effective load at the
it may be too low for your friend. The is capable of output port of the laptop is 47 kilo-
solution lies in an active audio splitter. providing ohms/2= 23.5 kilo-ohms. This does not,
Go through the text below to make one an unneces- in any way, load the audio-out port.
for yourself. sarily larger The signals that finally reach
gain than pins 6 and 7 of the IC are amplified
Circuit description this IC, the with a voltage gain of about 89, and
This active splitter for laptop audio-out TDA2822M the amplified signals are fed to the
is powered from a USB and provides wins on headphones via 470µF electrolytic
individual channel gain of 39 dB and three counts: capacitors. The combination of 0.1µF
individual volume control of a head- Fig. 2: Pin configuration of
simplicity, capacitor and 4.7-ohm resistor helps in
phone channel. TDA2822M low noise reducing the high-frequency noise and
The circuit uses two TDA2822M and two lower the possibility of oscillations.
audio power amplifier ICs for head- power amplifiers in one 8-pin pack- The 100 µF at pins 5 and 8 provides
phones/small speakers. Each 8-pin age. AC grounding at audio and higher
DIP TDA2822M has two audio The TDA2822M can operate over a frequencies. The 10µF capacitors at the
power amplifiers: one to serve the voltage range of 1.8V to 15V. The USB Vcc pins suppress the line noise.
left channel, and the other for the port provides 5V and 100mA current,
right channel (stereo). Therefore to which is more than enough for two Power supply connection
get a two-headphone output, you pairs of headphones. On stripping the outer sheath of the
require four amplifiers or two pieces The circuit comprises four sym- USB cable, you will find five wires
of TDA2822M. metric sections, each section using (sometimes four). These wires are red,
The TDA2822M is a remarkable IC half of TDA2822M. The input left green, white, black (thick) and black

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 do-it-yourself

Fig. 3: Circuit of the laptop audio-out splitter

LEFT
RIGHT
GND

Fig. 4: Stereo-jack connection

(thin) in colour. One of the blacks

may be absent in four-wire versions.
The red wire provides +5V, while the
thick black wire must be used for the Fig. 5: Stereo PCB jack socket

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do-it-yourself
Fig. 6: Completed circuit
Fig. 7: Circuit in a box, complete with volume knobs, USB and jacks
ground. In case the thick black wire
is absent, the other black wire may be
used. Do not use the green and white
wires: these are meant for data transfer,
so insulate them.
Stereo jack connection
Unscrew your stereo jack and de-
termine which contact connects to
which of the three marked parts of
the male connector: Connect the au-
dio right to pin 7 of both the ICs via
47-kilo-ohm pots. Similarly, connect
the audio left to pin 6 of both the ICs
via 47-kilo-ohm pots. The ground
of the jack has to be connected to
the ground of the circuit. Use au-
dio-grade coaxial cable for good
immunity against noise. Keep the
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Fig. 8: Stereo potentiometers in the splitter
Fig. 9: Connection to the laptop
cable length between the jack and
the circuit as short as possible.
We have used here stereo poten-
tiometers. Each potentiometer has six
legs as against three legs in conven-
tional potentiometers, as there are
two potentiometers in one package.
This is necessary to ensure that the
same voltage divider configuration
due to the potentiometers goes for
each headphone. In other words, the
volume of the left and right channels
of each headphone must be control-
led by a single mechanical shaft.
Stereo-jack-socket
connection
Connect the right- and left-chan-
nel pins of the stereo-jack socket
to pins 1 and 3 of IC1, respectively,
via separate 470µF capacitors. The
GND pin has to be connected to the
ground of the circuit.
Repeat the same for the combina-
tions of the second stereo jack socket
and IC2.
Observations
This laptop audio-out splitter boosts
the bass. However, it introduces a
slight hiss (noise), which actually
improves the listening experience,
and is susceptible to interference from
mobile phones. 
The author is working with Manipal Institute of
Technology, Manipal
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