WIGGLING 'LITE' IN GUEST MODE

[monroe]

I am a fan of using cheap general-purpose parts that do the same job whenever possible. I got a stereo to mono adapter from Radioshack to feed my ipod into my modular. It worked fine. Once I tried using a Y-adapter built for splitting (i.e. a multiple) as a mixer and sometimes this resulted in distortion. I read up and found that when you simply connect the hot signals together, you are shorting them to each other and sometimes the current wants to flow from one source to another instead of your output destination. So I am wondering, why did the stereo to mono adapter seem to mix the right and left channels perfectly, while this Y-cable messed things up sometimes? Was it just luck, or does Radioshack's adapter actually incorporate some protection resistors to stop unwanted cross-feed? Any guesses?

Thanks.

[drewtoothpaste]

Impedance

[monroe]

Please elaborate, Mr. Comedian, sir.

[dan_p]

Impudence

[mome rath]

Impotence

[monroe]

why?

[dan_p]

[stk]

Every stereo to mono adaptor I've ever seen is simple a y-cable without the cable, no resistors.
I think you just got lucky with it not distorting. Would depend on the output level too, surely.