Bose Companion 5 compatibility with additional sound card installed

[chiknhawk]

I have a Bose Companion 5 connected through USB and I during gaming I like to use headphones but was not happy with the quality of the sound during gaming. So I am considering getting a sound card HT Omega Claro Halo, since this sound card has a built in amplifier for headphone. Now my question is if I leave my Bose connected to my PC and also insert the sound card along with its drivers, can I still use them both and switch between speakers or headphones connected through sound card? Or will this cause compatibilty issue having both in my PC? Please help

[Zero82z]

Windows Vista and Windows 7 already have very good support for multiple audio devices, so if you're using one of those OSes, you can have both connected at the same time without any problems.

[chiknhawk]

Thank you for the quick response. Now my next question is what headphone would you recommend I should get for gaming to use with this sound card? I think the Omega Claro Halo has amplifier and surround sound capability when used with the headphone. I currently have Bose over the ear and Sennheiser HD 380. I know these headphones are meant for music, but would I need to get a separate gaming headphones to hear surround sound during gaming?

[Silk_the_Absent1]

"Real" surround is more than two channels. There are a few surround headphones, but I have not been particularly impressed with them. In my experience, a set of good stereo headphones tends to sound better.

Plus, when the sound source is that close to the head, the brain will generally process stereo sounds as being directional (so you will hear it as being surround). Check out Wiki's page on binaural recording, and listen to the clips there with your headphones on.

-Adam

[Tazz]

If you want to hear surround sound in game then you would need a good set of surround sound headphones. I personally use Tritton's surround sound headphones (non-USB).

Surround sound headphones do offer directionality in the sound. Most of the time they do seem to be "not as good" as a good set of stereo headphones. Normally this is because they are cramming more drivers per cup limiting the size of each driver, while the stereo headphones can increase the size of the drivers to get an overall better sound.

The binaural would be cool. Its not something your going to see in games though. The time recording the audio files to cover every possible option would be ridiculous and expensive.

[chiknhawk]

Thanks for all the quick replies. I will try this with my Sennheiser and see how it sounds with stereo headphones. It does make sense to me now when you brought up how trying to get a surround sound on a headphone with multiple speakers so close to your ears wouldn't be as good as a normal headphones