How To Use Two Headphones On PC And Mac? [The Easy Way To Do It]

Most of us use headphones for our work calls, listening to music, or watching a movie late at night. But what if there is a requirement when you are using your headphone for the call and need your colleague to also listen to the call?

For such situations, technology has gotten advanced and it is now possible to use two headphones on pc or mac at the same time.

How To Set Up Two Pairs of Headphones on Your Windows Computer?

You can assign different audio devices to different programs in Windows. If you do not intend to share your audio via headphones with another person, the setup process is simple.

By right-clicking the speaker icon in your taskbar, you can access Open Sound settings. Once inside, go to Other sound options and select App volume and device preferences. You will then have access to the Settings box.

It allows you to customize your audio output settings for various programs. Because Windows will save all changes, you will not have to re-adjust them every time you run the desired program.

However, if you want to know how to use two headphones on a PC to share your audio with someone else, the step-by-step guide below will undoubtedly be useful. It applies to both USB headphones and 3.5mm jack headphones.

1. Use the multiple audio jacks on your computer

So, the best way to connect multiple headphones to your computer is to use the multi-jack system on your laptop. If it has one.

This is not very common and very few Apple/Windows will provide you with multiple audio jacks. But in case your laptop has one then all you have to do is to plug both your headphones into the audio jacks in the system!

2. Using Audio splitters to use two headphones on a Windows or Mac

A splitter is a wire that enables you to connect multiple headphones to your computer. If you are looking for a wired solution then this is the best way to use two headphones on one computer.

These splitters have a 3.5mm audio jack on one end that connects to your Windows or Apple laptop and has multiple jacks to insert your headphones cables.

While using audio splitters, there are a couple of points you need to keep in mind.

• The splitter jack has to be compatible with your computer. Otherwise, it won't work
• Make sure that the splitter has two separate jacks, for two headphones and one connector
• Buy a good quality splitter, otherwise, you might face issues with audio quality or input delay

Here is how you can connect a splitter to your headphones and computer.

• Plug the splitter jack into the audio port of your computer
• Connect your headphone jacks into the two (or more) headphone slots on the splitter

After following all these steps, you can test the sound coming from both headphones by playing any sound. If you face issues with audio qualities of input lag, then there could be a problem with the splitter. When you invest in a splitter, you can choose between the Y-splitter and the multi-splitter.

 

A Y-splitter can only have two slots of headphones so if you are looking at just two then this would be the best choice. However, if you are looking to connect more than two headphones to your computer, then you need to buy a multi-splitter that has more than two headphone jacks!

READ ALSO: How Did Headphones Change Over Time? (Find Out Its History!)

3. Using the Stereo Mix feature on Windows

Before you get into implementing this solution, there are two requisites to it. Firstly, this is applicable to Windows computers only. And secondly, this only works if your computer monitor has an audio port as well. If both conditions are met, you can connect two wired headphones to your Windows computer.

Here is how it works.

• Connect the first headphone into the audio jack of your computer and the second one to the audio jack in the monitor
• Go to the Start menu and navigate to the Control Panel
• Look for the Sound option and then inside it, click on the Recording tab
• You will see an option for Stereo Mix. Right-click on it
• Set this as the Default Device
• Now head over to the Listen option and select Listen to this device
• Here you will need to select the headphones connected to your computer

There might be instances where you might not be able to see the Stereo Mix option. But there is another way to work around it.

• Navigate to the Recording tab
• Right-click anywhere inside the tab
• Now you will need to enable the Show Disabled Devices and the Show disconnect devices option

If you do not see these options, then your computer doesn't support multiple headphone use.

4. Using a Bluetooth adaptor (for wireless connections)

Even though almost all computers are equipped with Bluetooth technology, it might not be good enough to connect two Bluetooth headphones to one laptop.

Therefore, you will need to invest in a Bluetooth adaptor or emitter. Go for a good-quality one if you want to avoid audio issues like input delay.

Here is how you can use them

• Connect the adaptor to your computer and switch it on
• Make sure your computer's Bluetooth is switched off
• Switch on your Bluetooth headphones and put them in pairing mode
• Now switch on the adaptor and once it is in pairing mode, it will connect to your headphones

5. Settings for using two headphones on an Apple laptop

To connect two headphones on the Macbook, you can either utilize the multiple ports (in some models), use a headphone splitter, or a Bluetooth adaptor to connect your headphones.

But when you do these, you will still need to make some changes to the system settings. Here is what you will need to do.

• Click on the Finder or the Launchpad
• Navigate to the Utility folder or Other folder and click on Audio Midi setup
• At the bottom left section of the window, you will see a + icon. Click on it

• In the menu, click on Create Multi-Output device
• Once done, right-click on that and select Use This Device For Sound Output
• Select your headphones in the Audio Device list and then choose the Master Device
• Then, select the Slave device by selecting the Drift Connection checkbox
• You can close the window. Now open System Preferences and navigate to the Sound option
• Go to the Output tab and choose your multi-output device

This completes the process of using multiple headphones on the Apple laptop and you can now test it by playing any audio file.

CONCLUSION On Use Two Headphones on PC And Mac

The people who benefit the most by connecting two headphones to their Personal Computers are games and audio editors. While listening to the same stuff is now possible with two headphones getting.

Connected at the same time it is easy for two people to watch a movie together, make a call together, learn something new together, etc. There are many advantages and disadvantages of connecting multiple headphones to your computers.

If your computers don't have an inbuilt provision, then you will need to use 3rd party software or hardware. This increases your expense. And if you end up using cheap quality products then the audio output takes a beating as well. So, if you are investing, do your research.

We really hope today's article was interesting as well as fun for you all. We hope that next time you wish to connect both your headphones to the computer at the time this article will help and guide you.

FAQs About Using Two Headphones On A PC