Quote:

bboy500 said:

From my experience, they are always a better option then most headsets I have used a lot of different ones (Expensive to cheap) and a good pair of solo headphones seemed to beat out most if not all headsets in terms of audio quality.
 
As far as the portable sound cards for the same price as the Xonar DG (or close to it) you can get the Xonar U3. It will do the job until you can upgrade to something more expensive and it will be better then 99% of onboards.

Click to expand...

Thing is, I don't want the hassle of the stand alone mic and I don't have much space for an external sound card. I am happy to sacrifice some audio quality for practicality.

Quote:

ipiggi said:

What sound card would I be looking at? Are they really a good option compared to a gaming headset at this price?

Click to expand...

At your price point, a Xonar DG(includes a headphone amp, PCI), Xonar DGX (PCI-E version of the DG), Xonar DX (PCI-E, 5.1, no dedicated headphone amp)

Quote:

ipiggi said:

Thing is, I don't want the hassle of the stand alone mic and I don't have much space for an external sound card. I am happy to sacrifice some audio quality for practicality.

Click to expand...

Well the Xonar U3 is tiny, so you wouldn't need any if at all space. Think the size of a flash drive ^_^
 
Link: http://www.circuitcity.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3171686&SRCCODE=LSCCITY&cm_mmc_o=-ddCjC7BBTkw%20zuubkbzfwlCjC-d2CjC-uu&AffiliateID=dlUPo6w0KBI-9tTpcq2moPeeQsVR2_19Aw
 
And the zalman clip-on mic is tiny as well, you clip it on to the wire and never worry about it again. Super simple and really easy.
 
Link: http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone-Microphone/dp/B00029MTMQ
 
There really isn't any "Sacrifcing practicality" in this setup at all. Once you set it up, you don't really need to touch it again and it wont be in your way at all.
 
If you still want a headset though, I haven't bought one in 2 years (Since I got into headphones) so I wouldn't be able to help you much in that regard =/