Does a USB headset work with a sound card?

[ScorcherDarkly]

Probably falling under the stupid question category, but how do a USB headset and a sound card interact with each other? The headset I have (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826158075) says it has a built-in X-Fi chip. If I plug it in to a computer with a discrete sound card, does the sound card override the chip in the head phones or do the headphones ignore the sound card? I assume there might be a way in Windows to select which source you're wanting to use, but will a USB headset still push the sound if the sound card is selected as the source? I did some google searching, didn't come up with much, hoping someone with experience will be able to clue me in.

Thanks.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

Let me ask you a question. How are you gonna plug a USB headset into a sound card? You can deduce the answer from there, so I won't insult your intelligence. But, yes you can select which sources go to/from whichever sound card (the USB headset is like an additional sound card) in the Windows Sound Control Panel.

 

[ScorcherDarkly]

Let me ask you a question. How are you gonna plug a USB headset into a sound card?

I wasn't sure if the presence of a sound card made it the primary audio driver for the system or if you had to be physically plugged in to the card for it to work. I was hoping for the former, but not particularly surprised that its the latter.

 

[Niku]

The way it works is that you select one installed sound device, OR the other. Not both. So, it will NOT use the sound card, other then the one built in to it. If that USB head set didnt have its own sound processor, i am pretty sure it will do nothing. Otherwise, a nice head set will just use a 3.5mm jack. You have to go in to windows and select the primary device to make any thing like switching sources happen.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

@Niku - It depends on the OS and drivers. You can have 2 sound cards simultaneously playing the same sounds.

 

[Niku]

Thats interesting. Ive never been able to make it work. Can you elaborate? It also sounds relevant to OP.

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

All I remember was it was in XP and I had a PCI pro-sumer level card installed which you could choose from ASIO or Windows (WMD? not weapons of mass destruction!) drivers in Windows and then whatever else in the recording program. It had on-board sound as well and you could route the media player's audio to the windows mapper which would either go to on-board or PCI card and vice versa. There were no tricks to it, but that's all I can remember. I'm looking in Win7 with my new firewire audio box and I don't see anything like it, so maybe it was an old Windows thing.