How to switch easily between a 5.1 headset and 2.1 speakers?

"It's not the most straightfoward solution, but it works, and it's the best I can think of.

Head over to newegg and grab the cheapest PCI soundcard you like and install it.

Get it installed, and make sure the Windows volume control is in your task bar. Then switching is a matter of right clicking the icon, going to ""Adjust Audio Properties"", and navigating to the Audio Tab. Select the device you want to output and input from on that screen. At least in my experience, you will have to restart any current applications to use the new settings."

"Well, on Linux, you could configure that with ALSA's dmix plugin's ""bindings"" options, at least the docs seem to say so. Connect the speakers to rear, duplicate from to rear, and then you have the output on the speakers. Use the mixer levels to turn up/down rear as needed. (Or just turn off the speakers). On Linux you could even have different apps going to the headset and the speakers; that documentation page has an example of using a 7.1 setup as three different stereo pairs.

On some sound cards (mine have it at least) there is an option to duplicate the front channels to surround or rear; connecting your speakers to rear and turning it on would enable the speakers (and leave the headset enabled, but that probably isn't a problem)

On pretty much anything, you could use a stereo/audio A/B switch box (a piece of hardware).

You may be able to use a simple stereo headphone splitter (a piece of hardware) if the sound card output has enough power and you're willing to turn off the speakers when not in use."