USB Headphones, newb question

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kevineugenius

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 9, 2006
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If you get USB headphones does the audio actually go through your soundcard or does it become a software-processed audio device? The reason I ask this is I had a USB video adapter long ago and it didn't go through the GPU at all from what I could tell, it was just software that ran on the CPU thus giving horrible graphic quality. I do enjoy the ease of USB devices, but I don't want crappy audio either. So, is USB the way to go or should I stick to the lovely cluster of 3 to 6 3.5mm jacks for nice headphones?
 
USB devices bypass the DAC (the thing on your soundcard that most directly affects sound quality) on your computer in preference for a DAC that is imbedded on the USB device itself.

AKA, if you have a good soundcard, using a USB product will bypass it. Also, a good pair of headphones should only have one plug. What do you mean by a cluster?
 
USB has enough bandwidth for audio so it isn't an issue.

Also, "surround" headphones with multiple drivers are generally awful.
 
USB headphones will not use your internal soundcard. They have their own sound card "chip" built into the headphone which will process the sound, and will show up as a separate audio device under windows.
 
My Razer HP-1 headphones sound great in my opinion, but they have like 6 3.5mm jacks unless you also have the AC-1 soundcard, then it's one DVI-shaped plug.
 
As others have said, a USB headphone has its own DAC that will process the sound. You will have to enable USB audio as your sound card to output sound to the headphone, and bypass any internal soundcard. Some USB DAC's can be very good, though you will have to check on the headphone to see if it is good enough for you.
 
Ok, new question but a similar enough topic I didn't bother to start a new thread. If I have my headphones plugged straight into my sound card, could I get a set of cheapola USB speakers for when other people are in the room and want to watch some crap on YouTube or something and leave the USB speakers plugged in (powered off) while using headphones or would I need to unplug the USB speakers for the sound card / headphones to function properly? Also, would I have to change sound properties in control panel to choose which output I wanted to use all the time? I basically want a setup that isn't a pain in the butt to use.
 
Yes, you would have to change sound properties in control panel; no you would not need to unplug one device.

You can also get a pair of non-usb speakers, and a cheap audio switch.
 
Well, I run Razer AC-1 and HP-1 which have non-standard plugins (there are adapters but they're horrifically messy) so that's kind of my own fault... unless I can put speakers in the case front panel audio jack while headphones are in the main plugin? (I could just trial/error that one, but I don't have my system rebuilt yet)
 
Would the audio through an HDMI port run through the sound card or is that handled separately as well?
 
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