Review on Manhattan 172851: Audio Speaker and Headset Switching Hub by Donald Marin

I bought this product after reading some noise reviews. I installed it and it worked fine when switching between PC speakers and headphones/mic. However, I did hear a hum that seemed to increase over time, particularly in the mic feed, which caused real problems on the other end of calls like Zoom. However, after some troubleshooting, I found that the ringer was being caused by a poor POWER SUPPLY to my speakers, which was causing a hum through my media switch (I had a USB powered supply that was degrading). This was difficult to troubleshoot as the source of the hum was powering my PC's speakers, but the problem was most noticeable in my headset. This problem -- with a cause outside of the actual switch -- can be a common theme in most 1-star reviews. Things to watch out for: - Volume is just a resistive knob. I don't think there are active components in this switch, so the volume just reduces the volume provided by the PC. I prefer to leave it at the maximum level and use the PC volume. Powering your speakers, if amplified, is important to overall sound quality. This switch allows you to inject some pretty awful high-pitched hum into your entire audio system if your power supply is unfiltered or derated. Again, there is no active filtering in this switch. - The switch works as it should. This is just a switch, it has no grounding or filtering, but it has a small resistive volume. With these things in mind, I highly recommend these little switches. I now have one on each of my 4 different workstations.