Drock remote volume knob

October 27, 2016

DROK Computer Speakers Headphones Audio Switch Converter Volume Control, Speaker Switching Device for Switching Back and Forth between Computer Audio and Headphones with 5 Feet Cable

Today I want to review this little volume know that I just received. The reason for this piece of hardware is simple. I have some very old speakers and one of them has the volume buttons on top of it. I always have to reach in order to turn the volume up or down and the speakers now sit on a shelf above my desk which is a bit higher to boot. On top of that, every time I look at a youtube video the volume is all the way up on those, so I have to keep lowering those sliders every time and then adjust the computer volume. So the volume dance is always there. Normally that hasn't bother me one bit. The other day I was asked about what speakers I would suggest from what was available at the store. I chose some Logitech speakers for this lady who just wanted to be able to hear the sound since her very old speakers were pretty much toast and she wanted something to watch some youtube videos for a class. The ones I chose had a large volume know and being that she is much older, I thought that would work very well with her. The first speakers I saw with a remote like this was on a friends expensive Bose set up which is also a very nice heavy metal volume know. It's really nice, but since then, I have always thought about having something similar for my own setup.

I finally saw something similar that I could add to my old speaker set up. The reason I have never updated speakers is because my old ones just work.  So there was just no reason for this. Today I got this delivered and thought I do a small write up. This is all mechanical so there is no software to install. It just sits between the speakers and the computer and no matter what volume anything is, it's always low where I like it. Unless I use my cd player as you will see later on. I'm also the only one using my computer so that works even better. This also gives me the added benefit of keeping headphones plugged in. Normally I just use the speakers on low at night, but this will be much better now. I can now just press the button to switch from the speakers to the headphones and no matter where the volume on the computer or youtube is, it's always at what I have it set. So it's very cool indeed. Is it perfect, no, but it's very functional which is fine with me. So let me get to the pictures.

Here's the package as it came.

Your typical bag, nothing special here.

The volume know and my coaster to give you an idea of how large it is.

Yes it's big, but it works well. There is also a usb version but that only works for the computer volume instead of the actual speakers. The new keyboard I ordered has those keys so I still get that too from the keyboard. My keyboard is going back but I mention it because there's no point in getting a usb version when many keyboards have those controls.

The bottom thin foam piece to keep it from sliding.

Basically I just unplugged the speakers from the back of my computer and plugged it to the black wire with that included adapter.

Once plugged in you get these two separate wires. They are fairly thick which is nice if you are going to keep moving this. I'm not but it's what this has.

I just used a few small cable ties every few inches to keep them together. And here I also plugged in my headphones which I never use, but now I can at night without getting blasted from the speakers and listen to anything I need without disturbing anyone.

My wires are staying on the desk so no need to crawl under the desk. Here's how I tied this end to keep if from falling into the rear desk black hole. Then I just left them at the back of the computer and routed the wires through. The knob now sits at the front of my computer on the left side. Easy to reach since it's on the edge of the desk above my keyboard and can be moved around if needed.

Now some people have mentioned that their channels were swapped on some of the amazon reviews. I can't tell nor do I listen to each channel individually, but maybe I'll check that later on. For now, it works fine. The sound felt a bit lower, but I'm not too sure since I haven't listened to my speakers in a while. My adapter felt a bit lose on one side too, so it could just be that.

The knob is all plastic and on the light side, so be aware of this. It could help if they made it a bit heavier, but it's not a huge deal. You can get the bose speakers if that's what you rather have. It does take some getting used to it a bit since you have to turn it a bit more than a regular knob. It helps to turn the volume up on the speakers and the computer. Then it turns the volume up a little bit quicker.

I scanned the included instructions in the package. Just plug the speakers to the black wire and then plug the green end from the drock to your green computer speaker input. Add your headphones to the head phone jack and you're done. There is no mention of this product on their website.

 Yes, more wires up front, but it works and I don't usually put much else on this side of my desk and I rather have wires than having to charge/change batteries.

The back wires from the knob itself.

I just tested the green input on the knob itself or what looks like an input. I have a cd player which also serves as my radio and thought I could use it through this other aux input, but I got no sound out of the speakers so unless it's for plugging in more speakers it may be an output instead of an input. I don't have any other speakers to plug into this to test out so I can't say if that works. It would be great if I could have used it for my cd player, then all my audio volume would be taken cared of with just this knob. I still have to manually adjust the volume on the speakers when using the cd player, but that's fine since I don't use it too often. Looking at the bose manual it looks like I should be able to play my cd player through the aux plug, even though I know this is not the same thing, but the function appears to be the same.

For completeness I had to unplug the cd player from the speakers a few more times and tested this again after reading how the bose version works. It does work but the volume is much lower when I plug the cd to this aux port and to the back of the cd player as I have it when connected directly to the speakers. I then moved the cord from the back of the cd player to the headphones jack and the volume is better controlled but when I turned it up higher the sound gets pretty bad. I also have to turn the volume knob a lot, basically all the way up and the cd volume the same just to hear the sound out of the speakers, so there is something that changes there. I'll be leaving the cd player plugged straight to my speakers since it has two inputs and it works better, but that's what this extra port allows you to do on this volume knob.

UPDATE on this. I am now using the aux port for the cd player and have the other end on the back of the cd player and not the headphone jack. I found all I needed to do was turn up the volume on the speakers. The cd volume doesn't do anything in this setup since you control the volume on the speakers. I just turn them up and use the drock volume know. Works great. So basically my speakers have two outputs. I plugged the drock to one of the outputs on the speakers, then I plugged the other wire to the computer. Basically I'm putting the drock in between the speakers and the computer. I can now use the second input on the speakers for the cd player but I lose all volume control that way. So I plug the cd to the aux on the volume knob. The other option is to plug the cd to the secondary blue output which worked well until I turned off the computer. So I just use the aux on the knob so I can listen to the cd player when the computer is off too. I also plug the headphones in and I can switch between speaker and headphones for night listening. Here's what this looks like.

There is no mute functions on this unit. You can however just hit the speaker/headphone button while using the speakers and the sound goes out to the headphones, but will silence the speakers obviously. So that can be used as a mute button. It's not a mute button but works just as well. Why write about something this small, because it's something simple that anyone can use and it actually solves a problem/issue I have had for as long as I can remember. I just never bothered to look for something because I had forgotten about it.

UPDATE: I decided to test out the left and right speakers to make sure this was working correctly and it is on both the speakers and headphones. I used this online test and actually found out I had the left and right speakers swapped. So basically the speakers with my buttons would be on the left hand side and the other one on my right. I'm right handed so I will leave them alone since I never play one side or the other at all and they both work just fine together. Movies may use that, but I hardly watch anything so they are always working together anyway. Here's the link to the site I used to test this which actually works great. Other than having to turn the knob a lot, it works just fine for what I use it.
https://www.onlinemictest.com/sound-test

You can find it here:

Ebay has it for 14.97

https://www.amazon.com/DROK-Controller-Headphone-Switchable-Microphone/dp/B015E5UI8Y/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1532541147&sr=1-3&keywords=drok+volume+knob - It's now 17 dollars and change for the one with the mic version. I now like my aux version better since I can plug my cd player to it without having the computer on. So I guess it depends on what you want to do or what you have whether you go with the aux or the mic version. My mic has a two piece long lead so it worked out fine for me.

Amazon 21.85 it's now 2018 and about 17 dollars and change. So the prices have gone down by now. this is a usb version though.

Bose speaker set with remote volume knob

https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/speakers/stereo_speakers.html 

Here's another switch that costs even less than this one and also has input for a mic. Cost is 12.97. I would probably have ordered this one instead if I had seen it first, but it's no big deal, my external mic is on the back of the computer and easy to reach still. I just thought the large knob was very nice and convenient, I wouldn't mind the smaller one on this one either. In short, I like my new volume knob above.

Logitech speakers with remote volume knob. If you want something a bit more affordable you can check these out.

One last things I just realized is that I can actually turn my speakers off and still listen to music through the headphones which is really nice because they don't have to be on all the time now. It still works fine as long as the computer volume is left turned up. I no longer have to worry about having the computer on. Read the update above. It all worked out fine in the end. the best part is that I can keep using my very old altec lansing speakers but give them a bit of and update with a knob I can use instead of the weird buttons on top of one of the speakers. It's been almost two years since I added this knob to my setup and it's still going fine. So if you have old speakers that still work, this works just fine. And the prices have gone down by now too. So it's a win win for a simple speaker volume control setup.