1-in 2-out Switcher - Which one?

[ILVA]

Hello, ASR'ers!
First of all, let me introduce myself. I'm ILVA from Russia (I am NOT a hacker, so relax, but keep your OPSEC anyway, ok? )
So... I'm a total noob getting my feet wet in audio equipment and this whole audiophile thing. Nothing crazy, I just want my system to sound good (well, that's how it begins, is not it? ).

Currently, my main driver looks like this:
PC (Mac) => External Audio Card (Creative Sound Blaster Omni Surround 5.1) => RCA cable (6 meter) => Microlab Solo 3C (rather good and spacious sounding 2.0 system with prebuilt amp).

It sounds good enough, but sometimes on difficult compositions (poly-instrumental rock, symphonic-rock, contemporary classic and folk (that's the music I listen to most often, BTW)) it sounds a bit muffled to my taste.

Speakers are sitting behind me by the HDTV (which I use as a second monitor for watching movies and the other stuff).

I want to get a proper DAC. After considering my options and budget I decided to get TOPPING D50 (thanks, Amir, your review has given me the confidence in this choice).

So my setup would look like that:
Mac => Omni Surround 5.1 => Toslink 0.5 m cable => Topping D50 => RCA cable (6 meter) => Microlab Solo 3C

But here is a problem. My iMac speakers suck for music as almost everything built-in these days.
I would like to get in the near future a separate set of tabletop speakers (most likely, 2.0 or 2.1 system) and 'd like to switch between them (when I work on my PC, I would like to use the front facing speakers, but when I am watching a movie, those Microlab's would come into play). And here I come to you with a question.

Which is the best switch for my particular setup?

I was looking into Schiit Sys or JDS Labs OL (but since I want RCA-type of setup ONLY) Sys seems fit the bill.
Basically, what are my options when it comes to switching outputs?

Thank you all in advance!

ILVA

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Hi Ilva,

Welcome to the Forum!

Your post is a bit confusing. If you’re asking about a switch that will go between the computer’s built-in speakers and the Microlab speakers, that would be an impossibility.

If you’re wanting to switch between the “future tabletop speakers” and the Microlab speakers, it’s not rocket science. Any A/B switch will work fine. I don’t see any need for something with a passive attenuator like the Shiit or JDS. As long as the speakers are active, you can simply use their gain controls to level-match the two speakers.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ILVA]

Thank you for your post, Wayne.

Your post is a bit confusing.

Sorry for a long post and a confusion (that's probably because of my explanation of the setup).
Well... Yes, I want to switch between the Microlab speakers and the future speakers.

Any A/B switch will work fine.

What are my options when it comes to RCA?
I've found a couple of options but am afraid they are cheaply made.
https://ru.aliexpress.com/item/MC1022-L-R-RCA/32857455490.html
https://ru.aliexpress.com/store/product/MC403-RCA-3-5-Bluetooth-4-3/401371_32856702456.html

Thank you so much in advance.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Well, those look more substantial than most I‘ve seen.

Of course they’re cheaply made. It’s just a switch. It’s merely routing the circuit from one place to another. It’s not carrying any current, like say, a light switch in your house, so it doesn’t need to be anything heavy-duty. No one is going to pay tens of thousands of rubles for one.

If you‘re really worried about the sound quality of a switch, you might look into getting an audio preamp.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ILVA]

Thank you, Wayne.

Ok. I know it’s just a switch. But I have seen all types of different switches particularly for the RCA on AliExpress, including powered and unpowered ones. With the mechanical and solid state relays and without. I wondered, given such an ample amount of choices, whether it would make any impact on the sound quality as the audio equipment is known for being picky about any electrical interference.

Once again, I am a newbie in this audio sphere and pardon my ignorance.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Well, actually I feel like the ignorant one – I’ve never seen any powered or with relays, etc.

As I noted, a simple mechanical switch will work fine. I don’t know that the powered models or ones with relays will actually be better (have my doubts), but I’m sure you can’t go wrong with one of those.

Bottom line, it would be hard to get an A/B switch device that wouldn’t do the job for you, no matter the price. I can’t see them having any sound quality issues, especially with the level of equipment we’re talking about here. Personally I wouldn’t spend much for one, but if it gives you peace of mind to go with something more expensive, there’s certainly nothing wrong that that. I fully understand, as I’m sure most here do. (For instance, I don’t have peace of mind with cheap blu-ray players, although they supposedly get just as good a picture as more expensive ones.)

So – pick one that looks good to you and go for it!

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt