Love them or hate them, headphones / earphones are generally needed at some point. Depending on your living arrangements, it is quite possible you wear them a lot. If I am not gaming, I let the sound pass through my normal system. However, once I start gaming I throw on my old earphones so I don't disturb others around me. My gaming earphones have always been my old cheap Logitechs that pass over the ears and have a microphone. I have a separate set that I use for travel and music, which are the Bose QC2's. Arctic Cooling sent over their premium gaming headset for evaluation, the Arctic Sound P531. This headset is USB driven, has 5.1 channel surround and a sub-woofer built in.