Splitting Stereo output

[Tommohawk2]

Hi all - first post, so hopefully in the right place!
I play sax at home using backing tracks and headphones with 3.5mm jack. I've stem split the track so the left channel has the backing music, and the right has the sax which I can fade up or down depending on if I'm learning the track and need the "cue" or not.
I'd like to take the left channel to a mono amp which takes XLR inputs. Bit of an experiment so I dont want to get into mixers etc.
For simplicity, can I use a stereo splitter to divide the signal, use one side of the split to feed headphones, and the other via a second cable which splits the stereo to two mono signals - then plug the left into the amp and leave the right unconnected. Does that make sense? The only issue I can see is that the left channel being shared will have reduced signal - but I can just crank it up a bit.
Main concern is left side of headphone will be connected to amp - maybe some issues re impedance mismatch?

[Sam Spoons]

You might be able to do it that way but a small mixer would be the best way and at £33 I doubt you'll get the job done by any means much cheaper than this. https://www.thomann.co.uk/the_t.mix_micromix_1_usb.htm

[James Perrett]

In principle there should be no problem although the devil is in the detail. Most headphone outputs have an output impedance of a few tens of ohms so will be happy driving a pair of headphones and a typical line input in parallel as the line input impedance will be of the order of a few kiloohms or more. Adding the line input in parallel will make very little difference to the load that the headphone amp sees.

The thing to check is that the XLR connection isn't expecting either a mic level or a professional line level (+4dBu) signal. A mic input will probably be overloaded by a headphone level output while a professional line level input will probably be fairly quiet with a headphone level output.

[Tommohawk2]

You might be able to do it that way but a small mixer would be the best way and at £33 I doubt you'll get the job done by any means much cheaper than this. https://www.thomann.co.uk/the_t.mix_micromix_1_usb.htm

Thanks! Yeah I need to kind of review my whole setup really, and as you say an inexpensive mixer wouldnt break the bank.

[Tommohawk2]

In principle there should be no problem although the devil is in the detail. Most headphone outputs have an output impedance of a few tens of ohms so will be happy driving a pair of headphones and a typical line input in parallel as the line input impedance will be of the order of a few kiloohms or more. Adding the line input in parallel will make very little difference to the load that the headphone amp sees.

The thing to check is that the XLR connection isn't expecting either a mic level or a professional line level (+4dBu) signal. A mic input will probably be overloaded by a headphone level output while a professional line level input will probably be fairly quiet with a headphone level output.

Thats a good point re the XLR signal level - it'll be going into a stage mixer/amp and the guy doing venue sound seemd relaxed about taking a feed from my laptop/tablet so hopefully shouldnt overload it. If that channel level needs reducing it wont matter cos I'll get the sound from the main amp if not from the left headphone. I guess the bigger problem is if the left level needs increasing the headphone volume would be too much. Might be better off using the left channel for mixer/amp only, and not connecting the left headphone at all.

How about splitting the stereo signal into left and right mono, feeding the left to the amp and the right to the headphone?

[James Perrett]

How about splitting the stereo signal into left and right mono, feeding the left to the amp and the right to the headphone?

That might work - depending on how easy it is to do on your backing track player. Telling us makes and model numbers always helps because we can then check to see if there are any idiosyncrasies that we might have missed.

[Sam Spoons]

But it's trivially simple using a small mixer (you may need to splash out for something with a couple more channels for maximum flexibility but that should still come in at under £80).

Are your headphones coming straight from your audio player?

[Tommohawk2]

How about splitting the stereo signal into left and right mono, feeding the left to the amp and the right to the headphone?

That might work - depending on how easy it is to do on your backing track player. Telling us makes and model numbers always helps because we can then check to see if there are any idiosyncrasies that we might have missed.

Will probably use a windows notebook for playback, and simply use windows media player or VLC. I can set LR levels in Windows Sound settings. VLC doesnt seem to have a balance control which seems odd.
As I understand it, if I split to mono, the left backing channel can then play through the XLR into the mixer/amp, and the right mono TS would feed the headphones - on the left channel. which is a bit wierd but doesnt really matter. Might be more logical to reverse my setup so the backing track is on the right channel. Does that make sense?

[Tommohawk2]

But it's trivially simple using a small mixer (you may need to splash out for something with a couple more channels for maximum flexibility but that should still come in at under £80).

Are your headphones coming straight from your audio player?

Thanks - yes its all a big experiment TBH. £80 or whatever not huge sum, but the whole project may go nowhere so if its possible I'll keep it low/zero cost.
Lost of other tech/software/playing ability issues to solve as well!
As it stands, headphones come straight from laptop, yes.

[ef37a]

"it'll be going into a stage mixer/amp and the guy doing venue sound seemd relaxed about taking a feed from my laptop/tablet "

That ^ could be another complication, anytime you are feeding another piece of mains powered gear you can run into ground loops (aka "earth loops" "hum loops") I second the suggestion of giving us a list of all the equipment with make and model numbers if possible.

That t.mixer is interesting? It appears to be a USB audio interface as well so that avoids using the laptop's headphone output. Always a good thing IMHO as laptop HP jacks seem to be exceptionally feeble things?
The makers have however missed a trick? 18V phantom power? There are millions of USB powered AIs in the world now most of which have perfectly workable 48V phantom power. The converters that provide it are very mature technology now and must cost cents to implement.

The ten quid extra for shipping has put me off anyway!

Dave.

[Tommohawk2]

Hi Dave and thanks for that. Take you point about mains loop and hum, although the notebook will probably be battery only when being used live.
Re the gear, don't have notebook yet, probably HP Pro X2 612 G2, phones are Mpow H7 using cable. Didn't think I'd have the venue mixer info but found it by chance in a social media pic. It's XENYX
X1204USB.