2 Sound Cards At Same Time?

garrzilla

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Apr 19, 2013
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I have a 7.1 headset and is using onboard since it has all the ports. I am going to be buying the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers and I was wondering if I buy a separate sound card for it. Can I use both Headset and speakers at same time?

I will be using speakers mainly for music.
 

eaycrcg

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Apr 18, 2013
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I've been trying to do the same thing for some time and I haven't been able to on my windows 7 machine. I have a line6 external sound card for music recording and an external DAC+headphone amp combo and have never been able to persuade windows to split audio output between the two. I switch between the two by right clicking on the sound icon in the task bar, clicking playback devices and on the dialogue box that appears selecting the sound card I want to use and clicking set as default - it then switches all sound output to that soundcard.

Hope that helps - if someone else knows of a way to do it, that would be really good to know too.
 

braceyourself07

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Apr 20, 2013
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Hi all, long time reader first time poster. I was looking for the answer to this very question. According to a Microsoft forum post in 2010, a definite answer of 'no' was given, at least for Windows 7. You can't use two sound cards simultaneously, just one at a time by choosing the default device in Sound properties under the Playback tab. I'm kind of in a conundrum right now as I have technically 3 sound cards after collecting some gadgets over time. I have a Xonar Essence STX sound card which is awesome for 2-channel audiophile listening (e.g. high quality headphones), a USB 7.1 surround gaming headphones (which is basically a USB soundcard in of itself), and the motherboard's onboard 5.1 audio which go with my Logitech speakers. So if I'm gaming late at night, I use the headphones... if I'm gaming during the day, the on board audio, and if I want to kick back and listen to music it's the Xonar. Yeah it's redundant... I wish there was a better way to manage this.
 

garrzilla

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Ok thats fine if I have to switch between them. What sound card do you recommend for the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers? I hear most expensive sound cards will sound the same. Also I have no clue what ports the speakers use, so ya please help.
 

braceyourself07

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The Xonar Essence STX will only put out two channels of sound. Mind you, those two channels are the most exquisite. But that's what the card is for... people who have high end audiophile headphones who want to enjoy a pristine music listening experience since it's more easily achieved in a set of headphones as opposed to a set of speakers.

The Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers are a fine set of speakers, but I'm not sure how much they will benefit from the Xonar. It certainly wouldn't be any worse. You're not going to get any surround sound out of them unless you have a receiver that can decode Dolby from the two channel audio. Or if you use the digital out on the STX to a receiver, but then you're not really using the sound card for what it's made for.

To summarize, get the Xonar Essence STX if you are going to mostly listen to music with high end headphones that are made for accurate, distortion free music reproduction (like professional monitoring headphones).

If you want more options, like the ability to (in the future) hook up a 5.1 or 7.1 surround speaker system for gaming or Blu-ray movies, then you may want to utilize another sound card or even just the stock motherboard sound card if it has hookups for multichannel audio.

The STX is awesome at what it does because of it's high end components and attention to minimizing electromagnetic interference, but that may or may not be what you want.

If you still can't decide... don't get the STX. Try your speakers, headphones, etc... with the onboard audio and see if you like it or not. If it sounds awesome to you, then great, go no further. However, if you're not satisfied with the quality of your sound, and you have the money to burn, then go ahead and get an STX.