Stereo Y-Adapter Not Working With Sound Card

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hydroaxe
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Hydroaxe

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I have a Sound Blaster Live card that has been working quite well for what it's worth. For some time I've been recording digital audio onto my hard drive with a 1/8 stereo mini cable (13 feet long) connected from my digital piano to the line input on the card. Since I moved my digital piano 24 feet away, I thought I'd get nice quality, 30-foot 1/4 inch cables for cleaner sound and them convert them to the 1/8 inch stereo jack with a y-adapter.

The problem with the y-adapter is that the sound card is not detecting both channels. It only detects one channel when plugged all the way in. However, if I fiddle around and plug the adapter half way in, I can get it working in stereo, but I might be getting some extra hum because of that. I've tried two y-adapters and they both have the same problem. It must be the jack on the sound card. You might ask: Do you know for sure that the stereo mini you used to use still works fine in the sound blaster jack? Yes.

My questions are:

  • Should I buy a sound card that has 1/4 inch inputs for a left and right channel?
  • Will a better sound card significantly eliminate any hum?
  • Should I really be using 1/4 inch cables?
  • Any idea why the damn sound card jack doesn't work properly with any y-adapter?
 
Just grabbing at straws here. Are the two 1/4" female jacks on the Y mono or stereo? Are you using two 1/4" mono cables to plug into the Y? If you're using two 1/4" cables to connect to the Y then these should be mono and the 1/4" female jacks on the Y should also be mono. Of couse the male 1/8" plug going into the card would be stereo.
 
You have to be VERY careful what adapter you get.

There is a standard "Y" adapter that takes a stereo 1/8" plug to 2 1/4"TRS stereo plugs - you DONT want that.

and there is a 1/4" TRS stereo to (2) 1/4" mono SPLITTER.

You want the second one or you will get the problem you have of only getting one side.

Then you need a 1/8" stereo to 1/4" TRS adapter (RS# 274-366) to plug into the SPLITTER. Plug that into your soundcard. (Radio Shack has the splitters, but you have to be careful not to get the standard "Y" adapter!)


If you cannot find the above, you can use a (RS#42-2551) splitter that goes from a 1/8" stereo plug to (2) RCA jacks and then on each RCA jack put a RCA female-to-1/4" mono female adapter.
 
Ahhhhhhhhhh... I see now. DigialDon, yes the two 1/4 inch are mono. TimObrien, thanks for letting me know I have the stereo-stereo y-adapter that I DONT want. I didn't realize the two 1/4 inch females were not mono. I had a feeling it wasn't really the jack on my sound card, so I'm glad I asked. Now I can make a trip back to Radioshack and the music store, return the wrong adapters and get the proper parts instead.
 
The music store that sells sound cards was closed this evening, so I was only able to go back to Radioshack and return one of the adapters. I couldn't resist buying the other adapters to see if I could get my set up to work properly, so I did. I had to buy two 1/4 inch female to RCA, the RCA to stereo mini, but I also had to buy two RCA couplers with female on both ends. They all work fine together, but these extra adapters cost me $35.50 after taxes. If I can find an affordable 24-bit sound card with 1/4 inch inputs, I will just return all the adapters and the money can just go towards the new sound card.
 
By the way, I use an Echo Mia. It has 1/4" inputs and outputs.

Works great and I've seen them on sale for $100-150.
 
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