More technical advice wanted

[andrewducker]

So i got a new computer.  And it comes with 5.1 surround sound.  So i got 5.1 surround speakers.  And they take 3 inputs (Front, Rear, Bass/Center).  The motherboard's built in sound has three sockets - one for each of those inputs.  Except that if you want to use one of the sockets as a microphone then you lose the bass/center speaker.  Which is not great.

Now, I _have_ a decent set of headphone _and_ a headphone/mic set.  So I don't want to buy even more headphones.  But it wouldn't kill me to buy a microphone that plugged into the USB port.  But I want a headset based one - not a desktop mic.

Alternatively, I could stick another card into the PC which would allow me to plug in a microphone.  But I don't see anything like that.

Any suggestions?

Comments

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Logitech makes a headset-based mic for both the PC and the PS2. I've got two of them that are meant to plug into the PS2 that I use with my computers instead.

You could purchase another soundcard, and use it for certain things. But that doesn't make very much sense to me. Does your onboard sound have optical-out?

[andrewducker]

Nope, no optical out.

[derumi.livejournal.com]

You might want to purchase a barebones SB16 card solely for the microphone input. But for that price, you might as well get the USB headset.

http://shop.gameplay.co.uk/webstore/productpage.asp?ProductCode=PT1101

USB headsets usually disable your speakers when you plug them in, but Windows XP recognizes them immediately. I've never seen a USB stand-alone mic, actually.

[guyinahat.livejournal.com]

indeed
drop by if you want to have a look at my USB headset

[freemoore.livejournal.com]

your having a mic and 5.1 sound turned on at the same time is really quite likely to lead to very unpleasant feedback, and lots of it; i can't quite see why you'd want both at once anyway..

(though do enlighten me.. just discovering the wonders of dragon naturally speaking)

[andrewducker]

The point of both the surround sound and the microphone is online gaming. So I can (a) hear someone coming up behind me and (b) shout things to teammates.

You're plan is exactly how I play online.

[guyinahat.livejournal.com]

From experience, a headset mic is the only way to avoid feedback when online gaming - a free standing mic causes feedback because it catches sound from a wider radius. I normally have the headset hanging around my neck with the mic boom sticking up in front of my mouth. All output goes to the speakers - game and chat. Looks silly, but it works.

[douglasbryant.livejournal.com]

I use a sound blaster audidgy 2 it has all the connections direct on the card, by the way 5.1 is cool, but there aren't any games developed for it, supporting it doesn't really help when they haven't made the sound especially for it, also 5.1 only works for 5.1 tracks or computer games, so music cd's will only play out of the front 2 unless you use dolby surround emulation over the 5.1. I switched back to stereo which is still considered the best for music reproduction.
I made alot of exspensive mistakes to come to these conclusions.

Maybe I'm overlooking something...

[whiterabbitt.livejournal.com]

Don't use the crappy built-in sound off your motherboard for pretty 5.1 speakers. Your motherboard has perfectly tolerable mic-in because chances are your mic isn't exactly hi-fi (and if you get a good one, the plug won't fit and you'll need a real mic amp). So get a sound card that will give you proper 5.1 output and use the onboard sound for its originally-intended purpose. The other advantage of doing this is that it'll be cheaper and easier to find a standard 5.1 soundcard than it will be to find a wonky mic-in card.

Re: Maybe I'm overlooking something...

[andrewducker]

I deliberately went for a motherboard with 5.1 surround sound that supported the various EAX extensions as well. I even found a few reviews to make sure the sound was good. And it is.