Thanks for the replies, guys. I guess I've been overthinking this ever so slightly. Just one thing:
Do you mean the little control hub that comes with it? The one with the volume and mute switches?
As for 7.1 being simulated or not, I've been using 7.1 for the past 5 years and I swear my audio sounds better than when I had 2.1, be it in games, movies or just listening to music. Call it placebo effect if you want to, but all I know is it works for me, I like it so I want to keep on using it. If the quality has deteriorated over the past few years, then I'll just switch to 2.1 mode, but for the time being I would like to have the option available.