

However, when I play music or videos, I pipe the audio through the USB Additionally, I can mute my calls/music/whatever from this device without muting my system sounds just by hitting mute on my audio device's remote. Skype audio (mic and headphone) are through the internal devices.

System sounds are relegated to my internal speakers.

For example, I use the Behringer UCA202 USB Audio Interface to connect my Mac to my audio system. You can't use the headphone port because when you plug in the headphones, by design, the internal speakers of your Mac will disconnect. The easiest way to do this is to have your background sounds on your Skype audio is do do this via hardware have the audio on a different set of speakers the microphone (or input device) can pickup.
