Headphone set - Hiss

[bushmins]

I have a headphone set with microphone. Its got a 3.5 jack that goes into a splitter then into the PCs phono and microphone sockets. This seems to cause a lot of hiss, this problem is not evident when plugging the headset into a laptop that does not require the splitter. I'm guessing that splitters are a bit rubbish. So I'm looking to get a USB headset that I hope will get rid of this hiss problem. Am I thinking correct here? Or is there something else at play?
I also have a seperate microphone thats got a USB connection, this works fine.

 

[Timber]

I don't know if splitters are useless in that I don't have enough experience with them. I only use (rarely) a 2 to 1 3.5mm adapter if I need headphones and modmic on console or something. Does the headphones you are using have a removable cable, i.e. like the PC38X? So you could use a different cable with the separate mic & headphone ends?

I suppose another option is to use an external USB sound card with mic/headphone inputs although you're getting into the realm of using that instead of your onboard audio for sound.

 

[siumatfung]

What kind of laptop do you have?