Okay, so this has been a bundle of fun. Thanks very much Rushian and Paul for all of your input.

The XLR adapter arrived and still provides no signal. Paul must be correct that a preamp is required, though I thought the 11R contains a preamp for this purpose? Sorry if I'm not quite grasping the concept. I'm very much a newbie with this.

Anyway, I had a thought to solve the problem and would like the ask the two of you (or anyone else) if this would work:

The idea is to purchase a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 as an audio interface to run the phones and mic through for gaming. Would that interface have a self contained pre that would function correctly for my purposes, or would I still somehow be in the same boat?

The hope is that this also MIGHT potentially kill two birds with one stone because the other problem I've been having is blue screen system crashes when the 11R is on. I never have these crashes when it's off and I know it's somehow related to an issue with the motherboard in my recent PC build and the 11R itself. I can't remedy the situation and I never experienced it when using the 11R with my old laptop in the same way.

If this does solve both problems (I can dream, at least) then I would use the Scarlett as my everyday interface and use the 11R only when playing guitar.

Thoughts?