Tested: 3-in-1 audio switcher | Universal, but for whom?

Kensington’s audio switch lets you send sound from all your devices, computer, phone or tablet, to wired or Bluetooth headphones, while controlling volume and muting the mic as needed. And it works, with a few hiccups. But who is this $147.99 toy for?

WE love

Just as you can’t stop a heart from loving, you can’t stop engineers from giving birth to amazing gadgets from time to time. And that’s what this Kensington-made 3-in-1 audio switcher is that basically has one purpose: to focus and control the sound from three of your devices to your headphones.

The device in question is a tiny black box measuring 83mm by 53mm, 27mm high and weighing just 85g. It has seven large buttons on top, each with an icon identifying its role. We start by connecting it with a USB-C cable to the computer. It then becomes an output and an audio input that must be chosen in its parameters.

All that remains is to connect headphones with a microphone to this little box, and you are spoiled for choice between a 3.5 mm socket, a USB-C input or Bluetooth pairing.

You can mute the microphone by pressing the largest button, the one displaying a crossed-out microphone icon which then lights up in red. Volume control is done with the smaller “+” and “-” buttons to the right of the box.

At this stage, the biggest advantage of the switch is to control directly in front of you, without having to lean over the computer keyboard and clearly, the volume and the microphone.

That’s not all. At the very top of the switch are two more buttons displaying the typical Bluetooth icon, with one or two large dots. You can then pair, for example, the one-point Bluetooth button to your iPhone, and the two-point Bluetooth button to an Android phone, another computer or a tablet.

What does it look like in real life, as we tested it? Let’s say you’re in a meeting Zoom Or Teams. You press the top left button, your computer is the sending device, a green light confirms it. You hear your interlocutors and talk with them, mute the microphone when you want and play with the volume.

Your iPhone rings, you press the first Bluetooth button that lights up blue, you take the call. You fire up a song on your third device, an Android phone in our test, and press the second Bluetooth button which in turn lights up blue.

So. In effect, your headphones are paired with three devices at the same time, which is impossible without the intervention of this switch. Switching from one device to another works quite well when the configuration has been done correctly.

We love less

The supplied manual looks like those famous IKEA assembly guides without any text, only with not very clear illustrations. Result: we spent two hours looking for the right configuration, after having connected the headphones incorrectly (we used the wrong Bluetooth button), and choosing the Bluetooth connection for the computer when it should be wired. We had to start all over again to get the right installation.

Phone calls gave us little trouble. On two occasions out of a dozen tries, there was an echo in the conversation. The sound of the videos broadcast on the computer also had a slight delay when passing through the switcher. By connecting our headphones directly to the computer via Bluetooth, the lag disappeared. This lag did not appear in our videoconferences.

One buys ?

Apart from a few technical hiccups, which aren’t exceptional when it comes to Bluetooth connections, we don’t have much to complain about with the Kensington switch. It basically does its job well of managing traffic between three devices to headphones.

The big question we honestly can’t answer is the usefulness of this technology. We imagine that the intensive telecommuter who wears his headphones full time and constantly switches from one device to another will benefit. The quieter user will find this device far exceeds their needs. Especially in an Apple environment where one can easily switch the Bluetooth connection from one device to another.

It’s up to you to decide according to your needs.