Right now I am using headphones on the line out of my guitar amp to practice quietly. I want to be able to hear music from my computer in the same headphones, to practice over it. That's it, no recording. Seems simple, but I'm having a hard time getting a definitive answer online as to what the best piece of hardware will be to let me do that.

I think I've gathered that a mixer will do this, but there are a metric shite ton of them on the market. Input types are all over the map, and some reviews talk about how some will cut input down from stereo to mono, and it won't play back right? What's a good cheap mixer or headphone amp that will let me do this if I don't care about recording or running a microphone?

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Posted by TrevBlows

Member since Dec 2003

488 posts

Posted on 5/29/19 at 1:37 pm to TheDrunkenTigah

The Vox headphone amp has an aux in and headphone out. I have the AC30 one, but wouldn't buy another. They just sound like you'd expect for $40. I think a better option is the Fender Champion 20 for $99. I use the Champion 40 for the exact thing you're looking for.

Vox

Champion 20

This post was edited on 5/29/19 at 1:40 pm

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Posted by TheDrunkenTigah

Baton Rouge

Member since Aug 2011

17314 posts

Posted on 5/29/19 at 1:58 pm to TrevBlows

Yeah I've seen the little Vox plugin amp but wanted something a little bigger, so I went with a Vox 10W. Wish I had known about the Champion a few weeks ago, I really like the amp I've got but the aux onboard would have made the decision.

I've just about got this narrowed down to running the guitar amp through a cheap mixer and then using an adapter to put the PC signal through one of the mixer channels. You would think this would be a more popular feature on practice amps and small mixers but I guess not.

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Posted by hubertcumberdale

Member since Nov 2009

6477 posts

Posted on 5/29/19 at 2:25 pm to TheDrunkenTigah

M Audio Fast Track Pro

This is what I use to connect my KRK Rockit speakers to my desktop. I also used it in the past as a second soundcard to monitor a second audio channel for DJ'ing on Ableton...it is great, very popular and easy to set up.

Do you have Ableton or Fruity loops or some other kind of composition software?

This post was edited on 5/29/19 at 2:26 pm

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Posted by TheDrunkenTigah

Baton Rouge

Member since Aug 2011

17314 posts

Posted on 5/29/19 at 2:47 pm to hubertcumberdale

quote:
Do you have Ableton or Fruity loops or some other kind of composition software?

None of the above, I've used audacity, pro tools, and garage band just playing around but like I said right now I'm not focused on layering multiple tracks or recording. I strictly want to use the computer as an input source to play backing tracks like drum beats or songs into the phones along with the signal from my amp. The mixer is going to be a glorified aux input. I'm just doing this to noodle around and I like jamming over music.

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