Help improving audio: two PCs and hardware mixer.

[bsoltan]

Hi, looking to get some help/advice to upgrade my audio. I know very little about audio.

I use two computers; one for gaming & occasional movies (PC1), and one for everything else; music, video, shows/movies, talk etc. (PC2).

Current situation:
Currently I have a GoXLR Mini mixer connected by USB to PC2. I then plug my headphones to the front of the mixer. This has been working fine but perhaps not the best for my headphones.
PC1 is then connected via a 3.5mm jack from the front panel audio to the rear of the GoXLR in order to get the audio from that machine. However there is often buzzing/interference using this if the volume is high, and Windows 11 sometimes like to 'forget' what device is plugged in. This is the main area I'd like to improve.
I use a Rode Procaster XLR mic with Cloudlifter connected to the GoXLR Mini. However I've always found this needs really high mic boost on the Mixer so not sure I can improve the setup.

Current Hardware:
Headphones - Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 80 Ohm.
Mic - Rode Procaster + Cloudlifter via XLR.
Mixer - GoXLR Mini.
Sound - Onboard / via USB.

I'm looking to get the best out of my headpones and mic across both machines. Ideally being able to use both smoothly on both PCs. I quite like the hardware mixer controls.
I expect this probably requires an improved mixer of some kind, and I've been keeping an eye on the different Rode options - the RØDECaster Duo has dual USB-C for connecting to two PCs.

Would that be the best option, any alternative mixers/solutions to consider?
Should I look at upgrading my PC audio? Although if it goes through a mixer maybe it's not necessary.
Should I add a DAC/amp? A mixer presumably does the DAC part but would an amp be worth it for my headphones & audio?

Thanks for the assistance.

 

[sx_turbo]

You could just get an av receiver, can make use of the optical outs if your board has them, or use a 3.5mm jack to phono cable into the back of the receiver.

Or you can plug the hdmi cable to the receiver and then the receiver to the monitor,

The receiver has a headphone jack and all sound would output to the headphones when plugged in.

I'd go for a decent 2nd hand receiver like an onkyo tx-nr 646

I can't help with the mic though, might have to have a mic for each computer...

 

[bsoltan]

You could just get an av receiver, can make use of the optical outs if your board has them, or use a 3.5mm jack to phono cable into the back of the receiver.

Or you can plug the hdmi cable to the receiver and then the receiver to the monitor,

The receiver has a headphone jack and all sound would output to the headphones when plugged in.

I'd go for a decent 2nd hand receiver like an onkyo tx-nr 646

I can't help with the mic though, might have to have a mic for each computer...

Thanks for the reply! I thought it was too strange of a setup as it took a while to get a reply. I was just coming back to bump/reframe.

A full av receiver seems like a bit of overkill for this and doesn't help with the mixing side of things. Perhaps it would be simpler to approach each PC separate but somehow use a combined headphone output.

I think I'll have to research to GoXLR alternatives as this does part of the job really well it's just having more input across two machines.
I'm sure the motherboards do have optical but I'd have to double check. Gaming PC is a MSI Z790 Tomahawk the other is Gigabyte Z270X-Gaming K5.

 

[Timber]

I don't have a GoXLR and had a quick look on their website - which is lacking at best.

Anyway, thought, does the Optical allow for input? If one PC was plugged in via USB and the other via Optical?