Sound Cards selection + Speakers

[DesolatePsyche]

Hello,

Does anyone know what would be best sound card selection where I could plug in my 7.1 speaker system + Headphones (+mic) BOTH together..

Preferably external

UPDATE: Probably will be going with ASUS Xonar U7 MKII 7.1
Thus here Question #2 . What would be great speaker/home cinema speakers for this 7.1 card?

 

[ssddx]

depends on budget honestly.

5.1/7.1 pc speakers are completely different than home theater.

if going home theater, a soundcard is not going to do much as you will be bypassing it anyways. home theaters connect via hdmi or optical.

if going with pc speakers, your 7.1 choices are limited. 5.1 has more options but you could take advantage of a soundcard.

 

[DesolatePsyche]

depends on budget honestly.

5.1/7.1 pc speakers are completely different than home theater.

if going home theater, a soundcard is not going to do much as you will be bypassing it anyways. home theaters connect via hdmi or optical.

if going with pc speakers, your 7.1 choices are limited. 5.1 has more options but you could take advantage of a soundcard.

Okay... since yeah later in future high tier speakers will have it's home theater thingy and optical cable thus bypassing soundcard.

What would be best soundcard selection in overall then? (headphones, mic jack and would be bonus to plug in my current 5.1 speakers)
And opinion on ASUS Xonar U7 MKII

 

[ssddx]

do you need virtual surround for headphones? i'm not sure the u7 has that. the u5 or u7 however are decent for general use.

eventually when you get a home theater you would likely be outputting via hdmi to it. you could also use optical (not ideal, but sometimes its what is needed) and some soundcards support 5.1 over optical (compressed dolby digital audio). dolby digital live is what one variant is called for this option.

creative's solutions like the xfi or omni are not bad either depending on your needs.

if buying for just the headphones and mic, you may not really need anything so bulky though. the xonar u3 is small and handles both headphone/mic inputs.