[threedeenut]

Hey Guys,  I am looking for something rather unique and was hoping someone here could point me in the right direction.  What I have is a computer with an Optical Audio Out audio card that I am using.  As I understand, this is probably the most pure audio out my computer would have.  What id like is a way to have a headphone amp that can connect to this with a selector for choosing headphones as I have a gaming headset with a microphone and my favorite of all time Grado 325i.  What this would require is one output in 1/4" jack setup and one 1/8" audio out with microphone in capability.  I bought the Plantronics "rig" just for the ability to do some of this, but, it lacks a 1/4" out, does very strange things to the sound and does not support switching.  Unfortunately switching audio devices (through the computer) produces problems with software and an external selector would remove these problems.  Basically what I want is a monitor A/B switch for headphones.  I could even live with analog from the computer but was hoping to avoid my audio cards DAC and use a more quality tool for the task.  Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[cel4145]

The optical output on your computer does not pass back audio the other way. So you would not be able to hook up a microphone using that connection. You would still have to connect the microphone from your headset to the microphone jack on your computer.

What is your budget for this upgrade?

 

[threedeenut]

2-300 dollars would be my max budget. Seriously considering the one of the Asus audio cards and something to take in my audio technical condenser Mic. I love having a headset for some things and not having to switch audio devices would be great but I hate sacrificing sound quality for convenience. I just don't know what to do.

 

[cel4145]

I'm not sure what your best option is for a condenser mic. For that I thought you generally need a pro audio interface, and I'm not experienced with them.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

2-300 dollars would be my max budget. Seriously considering the one of the Asus audio cards and something to take in my audio technical condenser Mic. I love having a headset for some things and not having to switch audio devices would be great but I hate sacrificing sound quality for convenience. I just don't know what to do.

 
1. Condenser SQ for games? As important as SQ is, do you really need a condenser mic that needs a preamp just to inform some noob about what you were doing with his mother before you started wiping the floor with him?

 (I'm joking and exaggerating here but you get the drift) Or will you also use it for podcasts and recording? FYI if you lose too much body on your voice over cheap mics, some gaming audio interfaces like the Xonar U3 has software that tweaks your voice, so you can try that first.
 
2. No Hi-Fi DAC nor pro-audio interface will be able to do what you need it to. The problem with Hi-Fi DACs is that they don't have any way of carrying the microphone signal back into the computer. On the other hand, audio interfaces use USB specifically so they could, but that also means that if you have your on-board audio doing the virtual surround processing (with EAX or Dolby Headphone), it won't travel through USB. The best solution that I can think of is to use the optical output to feed a DAC-HPamp or get a motherboard with high-output op-amp headphone driver stages, to drive the headphones properly,* then use a dedicated microphone preamplifier (not an audio interface) with the condenser microphone. I cannot however guess at how well that preamp will work with the microphone input on your soundcard or motherboard, as it may have a signal that is too strong even at its lowest setting and cause distortion, or as with too high gain, can go from faint to OMG TURN IT DOWN!!! with just a nudge of the knob.
 
 
*note that personally when your mind is too busy fragging, you'll actually notice less shortcomings with amplification than when you're listening to music and paying attention to not much else