As a fellow PE parent whose kids love to play with his sim gear, I've done some research into this myself. Can't say I have had a chance to test it, but I believe this should work. I included Amazon links and they're great with returns, so it's worth trying.
You won't be able to get far with your USB headset without using a software mixer as mentioned above, since the PilotEdge client will only work with one audio device at once. It might be doable, but will take a lot of experimenting and configuring, that's for sure. Here is a hardware-based solution:
You need:
* two wired headsets with individual 'headphone out' and 'mic' jacks (or, if you have a headset where they're combined into one jack, like those designed for phones,
one of these too). I am a fan of Turtle Beach headsets, and for reasons explained below,
the X12 in particular.
* two of
these splitters -- one to combine both headphone signals, one to combine both mic signals
* a
USB sound card with separate mic/headphone ports - there are a million different options here, but this one is cheap and well-reviewed and doesn't need drivers.
You should expect to lose substantial volume on both the headphone output and mic input, and will need to adjust your settings accordingly. Due to this, I would suggest matching the headsets make/model. There are also headphone splitters out there that have volume controls on them, but depending on how you have things wired up, accessing the physical control would be difficult. Many cheap splitters also result in louder output for listener B when listener A turns down! If you get the X12s (or another headset that has its own inline amp), each pilot can adjust their volume as desired without affecting the other.
Note that this solution will broadcast both pilots' mics whenever the PTT is pressed. No individual PTT here! You also won't be able to hear each other through the headphones, which is unfortunate.
Two more left-field solutions:
#1: If you already have an aviation headset (or hopefully two) you like, use this
real aviation intercom which has a 3.5mm aux in (for receiving) and 3.5mm aux out (for transmitting) and you'll have excellent quality sound, full control, be able to hear each other, etc.
#2: You may find your kids want to 'drive' their own view, look around at whatever they want, and so on. If you have another decently-specced computer lying around, give your co-pilot their own view, use SmartCopilot, and you can skip all that nonsense above and just use normal headsets in the normal way on both computers
