Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hello everyone :)

I am new here and I am searching for an answer to a problem I am experiencing.

I currently own an ASUS Xonar Xense soundcard with an onboard headphone amp, it also comes with a very nice Sennheiser headset. One problem I dont know if it comes from the Sennheiser PC350 or the Xonar souncard is that the volume from the PC350 doesnt mute using the volume control on the headset itself when you turn the nob to 0. You still end up with 10-20% sound.

The soundcard uses 1/4 jacks for the headset which also has the same. The soundcard also has a breakout cable that connects to the back and then breaks out into individual inputs for a 7.1 speaker system.

I also own a very nice Logitech Z906 speaker system.

The problem I am experiencing is that I find it very cumbersome, especially when playing fullscreen video games, to have to access the ASUS sound panel to switch between the headset and speakers everytime.

Now I may be experienced with hardware and computers, but sound is where I am lacking in experience.

From what I hear, Windows is unable to output sound to 2 devices at the same time from 1 soundcard, which I really don't understand why.

After much consideration, this is what I am thinking, and please let me know what you think.

I need to find a hardware sound mixer, nothing complicated. If I get a small easy to use sound mixer that has a microphone input, I can use extender cables with 1/4 jacks to go to the soundcard's mic input and to 1 of the mixer's source input's. I could then use the other inputs for the 5.1 audio of the Logitech Z906.

Doing this would allow me audio from both sources at the same time and give me physical controls over both sources and possibly fix the audio mute of my headset?

Are there any cost effective 5.1 audio mixers outt here that are small and user friendly?

Would I lose my 5.1 Audio?

I don't know where to ask these questions as I don't know any high end pc audio forums to help me answer these questions.

Thank you for any help you can provide :)

I Just checked out a review of these speakers, I use a set of Z5500's myself, which have a headphone output on them, which is handy to hook the speakers up to the pc via digital optical and just plug headphones in as and when i need them, sadly even though logitech claim these to be the replacement for the z5500, its sad to see that they dropped the headphones output. :(

The cheapest solution for you may be to use analog out from the sound card into your speakers instead of using a digital connection to the speakers, which of cause you would then not need to switch between digital and analog each time you wish to change betwene the speakers and headphones.

If you use an analog connection, you could use a 2way 3.5mm jack splitter to feed the front speakers and your headphones, possibly buy another set of headphones with some better volume control.
A 5.1 mixer will be incredably expensive.

Thank you for your reply!

Yes the Logitech Z906 do have a headset & mic jack on the side of the center console.



However I have a few issues. First, the Sennheiser PC 350 headset that came with the ASUS Xonar Xense is a very nice headset that retails for about 200-250$ but comes included. It does however use 1/4'' jacks that suit the sound card's 1/4'' headset and mic jack. Secondly, this headset was designed to be powered by a headset amp, namely the onboard headphone amp from the Xonar, which sends it extra current that is needed to power it.

Money is not really a problem. It is mainly to find a solution that will allow me to get sound from both the 5.1 speakers and the headset powered by an amp and possibly 1 or 2 other sources from 1 source of audio.

Thank you for your reply!
Yes the Logitech Z906 do have a headset & mic jack on the side of the center console.

Ah my bad, I read somewhere that they dropped it.

Have tried to use a quater jack to mini jack adaptor yet?
http://www.hearingloop.co.uk/store/prodimages/1122.jpg
The Z5500's do have built in amp, and can power some good set of headphones, the volume on the control unit also works for the headphones output.
I would assume that the Z906's would do the same.
Certainly worth a try as these adaptors are very cheap so you have nothing to loose before investing in other equipment like a mixer. :)
Let us know how you get on.

I use a 3.5mm splitter, it doesn't work as you might think since you need to disable 5.1 sound in the Asus control panel (Windows sound control panel) otherwise the other 3.1 channels go to the speakers (which are muted, then you lose a lot of sound on just the headphones). A 5.1 demuxer back down to 2 would work probably, then I could split all outputs, run through demuxer, go back to stereo. But you'd lose sound coherence probably unless the algorithm was perfect.

Normal way to do this is to use the headphone jacks in front of your PC, when you plug that in it mutes your speakers. Unplug to unmute speakers. Am guessing it's hard to reach the front of your PC? Depending on the sound card it would be able to output 2 channel stereo front and 5 channel stereo back simultaneously but I kind of doubt that since it seems like an "advanced" feature.