Schematic Reference

Dual Input-Combining Stereo Line Amplifier

This circuit takes two separate line-level stereo (L & R) signals and combines them into one stereo (L & R) output, thus avoiding the need to switch between two pairs of input signals. In the author’s application, it is used to feed the stereo audio from a TV receiver and a DVD player into an external amplifier. The need for the circuit arose because of a design peculiarity in the TV receiver. The TV has four A/V inputs and one A/V output. AV1-AV3 accept composite or S-video plus stereo audio inputs and these feed into the TV’s A/V output. AV4 accepts Component video (Y/Pb/Pr) plus stereo audio but unlike AV1-AV3, its audio (and video) signals are not fed to the TV A/V output. The Y/Pb/Pr input was chosen for use with the DVD player because of its superior video quality, while the audio was to be fed to an external amplifier for improved reproduction.

However, manual switching was inconvenient, hence the genesis of this design. In use, the DVD player audio is fed in parallel to TV AV4 and to one input pair of the combining amplifier, while the TV audio output feeds the other input pair. The amplifier output goes to the external audio amplifier. There is no conflict between the two audio inputs because when AV4 (DVD player) is selected, there is no TV audio output. In all other modes, the DVD player is off. As shown, the circuit has a voltage gain of 1.5 times (3.5dB) but this can be altered as required by changing the two 15kW resistors. Input impedance is 10kW and the outputs are isolated from cable and amplifier input capacitance with 47W series resistors. The circuit can be powered from a regulated 12V DC plug-pack.