USB soundcard? Speakers+Headphones at same time

[Boyiee]

I really had no idea how to title this thread...

This is what I want to do: Have sound come from Headphones and Speakers, playing 2 different things. I.E. music coming out of headphones while FPS/game sounds coming from speakers.

I'm using a pair of sennheisers for my PC audio, I love them. I plug them straight into my soundcard that came with my Rampage mobo, x-Fi. Quality is great, honestly couldn't be happier.

I want to have my speakers, 2.1 altec lansings, also plugged into my computer. I can run a splitter, which I have, and have sound come from both headphones and speakers at same time ---- which I don't really want.

I can not have the headphones plugged into any output on my pc and still have sound coming out of the speakers. That is, Unless I am using a USB soundcard for my headphones which is what I think I need. When I used my old steelseries headset with a USB soundcard, I could use the steelseries for vent only, and the speakers for music/games. I'm basically getting tired of always having vent+FPS coming out of headphones all the time, I want to be able to change my default device and open up a game so that the sound comes from the speakers for that application. I want to be able to play WoW through my speakers, and change my default device to open up iTunes and listen to music through the headphones. My ears are getting tired having everything come from headphones, my nerves are getting to me having to change some FPS sound settings just so I can hear people in vent that I'm playing with.

Etc.

So I believe the best answer to this is to plug my speakers into my soundcard, and use a USB soundcard for my headphones. Here are my questions. I am assuming the USB soundcard, unless a decent amount of money is spent, will offer less sound quality than my x-Fi... is that correct? If so, I would want the headphones to be plugged into the Xfi and the speakers through the USB... will that work? Also, after knowing which will have worse quality if any, what USB soundcard do I want if I don't want to spend too much money?

I do not mind changing default sound device before I open up an application, but it seems if the headphones are plugged into a sound/headphone output on my PC, no other sound sources will even show up in my sound options menu. I really don't understand why I can't just choose which output device I want to use and instead it just says "fuck your speakers, there are headphones plugged in". If I plug my speakers into the front headphone jack, it's like "bro those are speakers, they don't go there" and tells me to plug them into the soundcard.

[bungiefan]

I get the effect you want by using a USB headset, a Logitech ClearChat Comfort USB. I have Skype set to use the headphones and mic, but the rest of my sounds (on both Mac OS X and Windows) come out of my surround sound system. I believe Win7 lets you specify a set of speakers for each program, but XP doesn't seem to unless the program has its own controls, which all the voice chat ones do. So you set your OS to use the speakers, and then make your chat programs use the headset. This can also be done with BlueTooth. Your sound card is hardwired to have the headphone jack override the speaker jack. My USB headset acts as a seperate sound card, so having two sound cards could also address the issue.

[Boyiee]

No. I don't want to replace my headphones and I know different programs can use different sound outputs even if its through setting default device back and fourth. The problem is that once the headphones are plugged into the jack, speakers become disabled. The only way I know to override this is to go through a USB - but neither device has USB they are both 3.5mm or 1/8".

All I want is information on a USB sound card so I can continue using my headphones and my speakers at the same time, just for different programs - Though, I do not know how the sound quality is compared to my good sound card, or if I can plug the speakers into that USB since I rather the headphones have the best quality possible. Nor do I have any idea what to buy. I don't even know if using a 2nd pci soundcard would erase this issue, cause the headphones could still override the speakers in theory. I don't want to go that route any way cause I'd rather be cheap and don't want to take up more space in my case.

[Kaisha]

Have you tried a 3.5mm -> USB adapter, or do those butcher the quality?

[Jonny]

THIS is what i use i pump all sound other then vent through my 5.1 onboard sound card. Vent is pumped through my headphones (plugged into the usb soundcard) you could probably find a way to use it for music also

[Boyiee]

Have you tried a 3.5mm -> USB adapter, or do those butcher the quality?

Thats what I wanted to know. Hence asking about a USB soundcard compared to plugging 3.5mm straight into soundcard.

Trojin I was looking at that but am curious to know if my actual soundcard is higher quality audio then going through that USB. I want my headphones to have highest sound quality possible, so they need to be in the best input whilst my speakers can go through the secondary. Once that's in place, I can then change program defaults and such so that if one day I want my vent to come through my headphones, and FPS/Games through speakers, I can do that. Obviously this wouldn't be an everyday thing cause everything is better through the headphones. I don't want to always have Games+Vent+music to be coming through headphones all at once all the time. Once in a while I'd like one of those options to come through a different output.

edit: looks like that usb card is 2.1 only so my speakers should hopefully be able to go through that, although one of the reviews states "after installing Creative's software the sound quality is difficult to distingush from my X-Fi Titanium in my desktop" so that usb might be my best bet and just see which option sounds best, be it headphone into soundcard or headphone into usb.

[Jonny]

I do headphones into usb and I hear no diffrence in sound quality when I plug into my sound card

[Boyiee]

Yeah but what sound card are you using?

Also I found this with 5.1 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102020

[Jonny]

I'm using what ever came onboard on my p55 mb
And I have that other usb sound card u posted I tried it with vent+headphones made everyone
Surrond sound it was trippy

[Cream Soda]

I use the Ibasso d4 Mamba and I think it's great.

[Boyiee]

Yeah but what sound card are you using?

Also I found this with 5.1 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102020

Well my bestbuy has this one in stock and I guess I'll pick it up on the way home and see how it goes. Gonna have to do trial and error to see if headphones sound better plugged into that or directly onto soundcard.