works like its supposed to, i only wish that it gave the front headphone jack priority when its plugged in. Instead, it splits the sound between your output and your headphones so you will have unplug the primary output or turn it down manually on your speaker amp

While upgrading my gaming/AV setup, I ran into various audio issues that, after many purchases, tests, returns, and cables plugged in and unplugged, eventually boiled down to me having 2 analog audio signals that needed to feed into a single analog input on my speaker system and be able to play simultaneously. Now, the cheap and dirty way to handle this is to grab a $5 headphone splitter and hook it up backwards. However, because a headphone splitter is not powered, this will attenuate the signal strength from both sources, and can even cause hardware failures if there is a spike or surge. I'm not an electrical circuits expert so I will let you research that kind of thing yourself, but the bottom line is that a powered mixer is the best way to get 2 independent signals to feed into a single input without losing strength (a switcher would be a simpler option if you don't need both sources to play audio simultaneously). This Rolls MX51S proved to be exactly what I needed: A compact powered mixer with independent volume controls, RCA output, and at least 2 RCA inputs. This mixer actually has 4 inputs, but one is XLR mono for a microphone. The mixer has a very quality construction with a powder coated metal case, solidly attached input and output jacks, and very nice potentiometer knobs with a detent at the 12:00 (gain = 1) position. The mixer actually provides a mild amplifier capability if you turn the knobs past 12:00, but some people report clipping at max gain. This is hardly a drawback, as a unit this small with mixing capabilities really isn't meant to be used as a serious amp. I just set my overall system volume loud enough that a gain of 1 is more than I will ever need, and I keep the input volumes turned down. The mixer works excellently. I can play both sources at the same time with fully independent volume control, something that I didn't have in my system prior to my upgrades, so even though I hadn't originally planned to use a mixer with my setup, I am very glad that it eventually became necessary, because I now have much greater versatility. The mixer is very compact and fits nicely off to the side in one of the shelves of my AV cabinet. Many other mixers are much larger and although they probably work well too, I don't have the space or need for that kind of thing. I did run into one interesting issue while using this mixer. Both sources that I have fed into it are analog signals from DAC's. I went through 5 different DAC's before getting a setup that actually worked correctly all the time. One of them, an Insignia purchased from Best Buy, started causing loud popping and clicking to come out of my speakers after the optical source was turned off...but only when it was connected to this mixer. If I plugged it directly into my sound system, bypassing/disconnecting the mixer, it was fine. HOWEVER, with the DAC's I eventually settled on (one a FiiO D3 and one an eSYNiC), this problem does not occur at all, so I'm guessing that some combination of poor grounding and signal interference created a 34;perfect storm34; between the Insignia and the Rolls mixer. In any case, the issue no longer occurs, and I don't think the mixer is to blame at all. Overall, I am very impressed and pleased with the mixer. It does exactly what I need, does it very well, and all for a bargain price.

I've had this on my desk since I bought it, and it served me well. Recently, I our offices moved, I'm right next to the Empire State Building. I hear all sorts of RFI coming through the line/headphones out. It's not so bad just for listening, but it would be unacceptable if you had to do any recording. Even for listening, I find it to be an annoyance. I decided to look for a higher-end mixer that had grounded power cord. That seemed to fix all the interference problems I had. This is a nice little mixer, but if you are in an area with a lot of RF, you might want to look for something else.