Dac/amp with chat/game mix

[Smassive]

Hi All,

 

New to the forum and hope you can help me. I am fairly new to the revelation of semi decent audio and have recently purchased a separate headphone and mic setup. I had previously been using a Steelseries Arctis 7 gaming headset which I found got quite heavy after a couple hours of use. However, it had some functions that I liked and am unable to do with my current setup. Firstly the audio automatically switched between speakers and headset when the headset was turned on/off and secondly it had a separate game/chat control as well as onboard main volume.

 

I mainly use the headphones when gaming with others and revert to speakers when playing solo. This often means I have to go into various game/discord/windows audio settings to get things back to usable levels after switching. I would like to get a dac or amp that would have the following functionality:

USB input from PC

Mic input

Outputs to headphones and speakers with easy switching between the two

Volume control

Game/chat mix control

 

I have looked at the Astro Mixamp pro but not sure if it can easily switch between headphone and speaker audio. Also the some of the reviews aren't spectacular. I'm not an audiophile but I am lazy, and getting annoyed with switching between two configs.

 

Cheers

[The Flying Sloth]

I don't know of any DAC with game/chat mix.

[BobVonBob]

Mix control would be easiest with a software mixer, something along the lines of voicemeeter. It can be done externally, but would require setting per-app audio output and a full blown mixer, not just a dac/amp.

[geo3]

8 hours ago, Smassive said:

USB input from PC

Mic input

Outputs to headphones and speakers with easy switching between the two

Volume control

Game/chat mix control

The Fulla 3 gets you all but the last one. 

[The Flying Sloth]

26 minutes ago, geo3 said:

The Fulla 3 gets you all but the last one. 

Everything gets him all but the last one....

[geo3]

12 hours ago, The Flying Sloth said:

Everything gets him all but the last one....

No. A lot of things won't have mic in. 

[Nbd508]

I believe my GSX1000 has this feature, I have never used it I have an xlr mic

[Smassive]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like my best option is to go for something that has the hardware inputs I need then use a software solution for the game/chat mix

[The Flying Sloth]

35 minutes ago, Smassive said:

Thanks for the replies. Looks like my best option is to go for something that has the hardware inputs I need then use a software solution for the game/chat mix

In which case you don't even have to purchase an external solution, just do it onboard.

[Smassive]

18 hours ago, The Flying Sloth said:

In which case you don't even have to purchase an external solution, just do it onboard.

I still want the manual volume control really. Having to pause things to move a software slider if things get a bit quiet (getting old and hearing not what it used to be) is annoying

[The Flying Sloth]

3 minutes ago, Smassive said:

I still want the manual volume control really. Having to pause things to move a software slider if things get a bit quiet (getting old and hearing not what it used to be) is annoying

Then get a USB volume knob

[Smassive]

I've actually found something for free which does the job of a standalone volume and mix control. A phone app called PCVolumeControl links with the PC over your network and has controls for each running program as well as a master control.

 

Job done, thanks to everyone for the info though.