Just checking back in....
I got the fancy mic. I'm not making a sales plug so I'll leave it at that except to say that it is a cardioid mic. What that means is that, to a greater or lesser degree, it only pics up sounds directly in front of the mic. I also picked up some rather good headsets.
I ran an audio recxording app and what I found was this: I could record my voice while streaming an online radio station at pretty high volume and only heard my voice. I was impressed since I have the mic set about six inches in front of my left speaker. Even so I had some problems with the windows speech engine. Apparently I had to retrain it to use with the new mic. It's aall good now.
Now I'm left with a set of headphones gathering dust. They're really nice too and very comfortable. Unfortunately they are over the ear and make my voice sound funny to me when wearing them. Cup your hands over your ears and say something out loud and you'll get an idea of what I mean.
Bottom line, I can use voice attack and listen to the program plus a tv show or radio station all at the same time with no problem.
I love this program. Frankly I'm surprised not more gamers use it (or anyone else for that matter). I'll probably get into an MMORPG again before the year is out. Most likely WoW, LotRO or TSW. I'm sure it'll be a big help in whichever game I go with. Right now using it with Elite Dangerous.
Well, like I said, just an FYI update.