Creative X-FI Titanium HD, switch between headphones and speakers?

[Nitrius]

So i've had the X-FI Titanium HD for a while, and so far i've only been using headphones with it, but am thinking of getting 2.0/2.1 speaker system for my pc as well, and am wondering if this card support some kind of swapping between headphone and speakers? Or will i need to go behind the computer and switch the cables each time?

 

[Dev1ant]

Gotta manually do it. Or opt for a splitter setup. Mine is:

Titanium HD -> RCA to 3.5mm out -> 2x3.5mm splitter -> Speakers and desktop amp. I just turn off my speakers when I want to use headphones, and turn off my amp when I want to use speakers.

 

[Impulse]

Whenever headphones are plugged into the headphone output on the back, the speaker outs are muted, it sucks. You can get a splutter or just run a single wire extension and swap manually (cleaner sound path IMO), but you'd have to use the same output for both obviously.

 

[Nitrius]

Thanks for the answers.

Got a little side question here, if i get some kind of splitter, or a keyboard that got a headphone and mic cable connected to the soundcard and then have a headphone and mic output on the keyboard itself(like the qpad mk-85) will that disable the "processing" or the card? Making the sound worse in anyway?

 

[Impulse]

Doesn't disable anything on the card's end but it can degrade the signal and feed less power to sensitive headphones... If its done well its just like a 3.5mm extension, no big deal, if you're actually splitting it to feed two pairs of headphones or adding in analog volume adjustment it may become an issue. If the keyboard just has a simple 3.5mm pass thru and you're just unplugging headphones from it and plugging in your speakers its probably fine.

 

[slh28]

I got fed up of the physical switching and bought a Logitech G35 headset which is USB and runs separate to the sound card. So the only switching I do is in Windows.

 

[Pepiz]

Running a usb headset would be a waste of a sound card except for speakers. Also using the splitters, etc can affect sound quality. Obviously this might not be a problem if your headphones or speakers are relatively low-end.

I was debating over the same problem and decided to get a Xonar Essense STX which has a switch in the windows control panel, allowing you to keep both things connected.

 

[Impulse]

Yeah, the STX switch is nice, there's actually a hardware actuator switch which you control in software.