Windows 7: Headset vs External Speakers

Would anyone know of a way that I could leave my headset plugged into the computer and toggle the output sound to external speakers or the headset?

The computer itself is in a room where some else might be watching television. Of course, I can find my headset and plug them to keep the sound from coming out of the external speakers, but instead of this constant plug in/out a toggle of some sort would be quicker.

Thanks.

Jim

Hello Jim.
Start, Control panel, Hardware and sound Right click on Sound and select make shortcut.

This will put a sound shortcut on your desktop which you can use to select the output device

I hope this helps

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, the only output device showing is Speakers even when the headset is plugged in, so I don't have any option to switch to.

I think the very act of plugging in the headset must automatically 'disconnect' the speakers.

I appreciate your suggestion.

Jim

You could do as I do, and use a splitter plug into which you plug both the speakers and the headset into the same socket on the sound card. That way you get audio out of both simultaneously. I control which I want to use by the power switches on either the speakers or the headset.

this. unless your headset is USB it will be recognized as the same device as your speakers and just route sound to either depending on whether your headset is plugged in or not. the only way to change this is what is suggested above as far as i know.

Thanks for the input. Looks like a USB headset might be the direction to go in since it is a device that is distinguished from the speakers.

Interestingly enough, I found a program some individual created to assign a keyboard combination to doing the actual switching. I've yet to use the software until I get the USB headset, but many comments seemed to be very positive. So I might give that a try.

I appreciate the help.

Jim

Personally i can agree with using splitter's as this is what i have done for the past few years without problems. I use a XFi Extreme Music card with Logitech 5.1 analogue speakers and a set of Sharkoon Xtatic V3 5.1 analogue headset. All of course plug in via 3.5 mm jacks through 3x splitters.

This all works great and means i never have to change my input/output settings for any application/game.

If you do go for a USB headset you'll have to keep messing with the output from speakers to headset every time. Plus if you have any half decent soundcard then using USB headset is kind of defeating the object of having a good soundcard in the first place. But by all means go for what you feel you need. This is all just to give you something else to think about

I think you might be right, Taylorig. Seems like the splitter is the simplest solution and the cheapest. I'm going to give that a try first.

Can you tell me do you notices any decrease in volume by splitting the signal?

Thanks for the input.

Jim

Nope, No decrease in volume at all. Really the only way you'd get any decrease is to have extra long cable's but even then they would have to be quite a drastic length.

Hope it all works out well for you anyway

Also, it depends on which sound card that you have. Splitters work better on my Audigy card than they do on my Asus D2X, because the Asus has slightly closer spacing between the output sockets. I can still use the splitter, but it is somewhat difficult to squeeze it between other connections, if the splitter socket is bound on both sides by the other connections. This is particularly true using Radio Shack's solid splitters, but I'm uncertain if other brands are less fat. There are also Y splitters, which use short lengths of cable to create the split, which may be easier to use.

Since this type of connection is done at the rear of the computer, if you use a wired headset, it will use a few few more feet of the cable to reach you, but I use a Sennheiser cordless, so that presents no problem.