I have two computers with audio output, and I'd like to monitor both, simultaneously, with one set of speakers. What do I need?
I know I could feed the line-out of one computer into the line-in of the other, and turn on software mixing, but I want this to work regardless of whether one or the other computer is on or off.
So, I'm looking for a hardware solution. Could I use some kind of microphone Y-cable, or should I be using a mixer device – and if so, why, and what is the simplest/cheapest kind of mixer I could get away with?