Soundcard for speakers, HD Audio for headphones?

[Jellyfishpudding]

Thanks to an electrical storm whose lightning found our deck attractive, the front panel audio on my Xonar card delivers sound with horrible static. The speaker output was unaffected.

And so my limited knowledge tells me to just disconnect the HD Audio cable from the Xonar and connect it to the slot on my motherboard. Would this work? If it would, I question whether or not the audio would auto-switch from speakers to headphones when they are plugged in.

I'm fine with getting a new card. Just wondering if there's a workaround. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Decibel]

I don't think that it will auto switch - you'll have to select the HD Audio playback device when you want to listen to headphones.

You could switch the speakers to the onboard sound and get the auto switching back...

 

[GotNoRice]

Just get a cheap headphone amplifier, run it from the speaker outputs on the back of the card. As a bonus, your headphones will likely sound better than they did powered via the front jack.