The mobo HD audio stuff

[swaaye]

So, is anyone else a little irked by the audio on mobos being advertised as high definition?

I haven't heard a mobo yet that I'd use headphones with. They almost without exception have extremely noisy analog output. I have a SBLive from 10 years ago in my work system running the kx drivers that has no discernible noise and sounds wonderful (that rear out jack is fairly amazing). At home I have a 7 year old Audigy 2 ZS in one system and an X-Fi in my TV gaming computer. I don't particularly care about the "gaming features" anymore, the quality output is why they are still in use.

The only time I use the mobo audio is if it's running some speakers and the noise is inaudible. Then it's fine and gets the job done. Or if digital output is going to be the chosen setup, in which case the problem is solved.

It's a shame that these mobo companies can't just build a riser card that isolates the DAC from the incredibly noisy mobo and run some semi-decent analog circuitry. Skip the occasional fancy & useless Creative DSP that they sometimes go with and build that HQ riser card.

 

[Davros]

I remember some company built a mb with a vacuum tube on it

I think the hi-def concerns bit depth eg: 24bit audio

Davros is still waiting for holophonic encoding

 

[swaaye]

I think the hi-def concerns bit depth eg: 24bit audio

Yeah it's probably like DX11 on a Radeon 5450. Although in that case the quality is still there, it's just not delivered to your eyeballs at a rate that is within the human happiness threshold.

 

[Grall]

I'm satisfied with the on-board audio of my mobo. It's probably just as noisy as you say, but there's so many fans in my PCs, along with forced ventilation in the room I sit in, and a from a quality standpoint undoubtedly low-end Logitech surround speaker system (the one with the wireless rear speakers, whatsitscalled). So it just doesn't matter.

What I like is, it simply works straight out of the box. No need to install or update any drivers or sht like that. Convenience in my case outweighs quality...

One aspect of HD audio you might complain about is the dubious value in jack plug-in detection, as window apps often get confuzzled if you plug something in while the app is already running (or worse, unplug something...)

Basically, windows isn't just detecting wether the jack is plugged in or not. As far as it is concerned, the jack doesn't exist AT ALL if something isn't plugged into it, and that's the source of the problems.

 

[Colourless]

My onboard sound has an 'issue' with the front headphone jack. If I plug a USB device into the front USB ports that are next to the headphone jack, then the audio quality goes to hell and there are lots of audiable clicks. Yay for shielding, or lack there of. Other than that, the quality is pretty good. My ears can't tell the difference between it and my Audigy 2 ZS (which has been retired cause they don't work in systems addresses larger than 32 bit)

 

[Jawed]

NO! Does that mean when I eventually install Windows 7 64-bit, my trusty SB Live! Value will have to be retired.

NO!!!!!!!!!

 

[swaaye]

Audigy 2 ZS (which has been retired cause they don't work in systems addresses larger than 32 bit)

You can run http://nomoregoatsoup.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/daniel_k-audigy-series-support-pack-3-8/ . I've been using his driver packs for months. He has the entire Audigy line working pretty well in 7 x64. You can find these packs on Creative's official forums too. You get the EQ, Alchemy, Audio Control Panel, Speaker Setup, Soundfont control, DD Live and DTS Live (if you pay for the license).

They originally wanted to shut him down because he is modifying their software, but customer backlash over Creative's relative lack of software for Vista/7 and it being an attack on 'the little guy' ended that. Creative is updating their driver binaries though and you can go get just the official driver release instead.

XP x64 support is still broken however.

 

[swaaye]

NO! Does that mean when I eventually install Windows 7 64-bit, my trusty SB Live! Value will have to be retired.

NO!!!!!!!!!

You can run the kx drivers. They are working in Vista and 7 now, even x64. A little buggy but they do work. Strangely you have to use the SPDIF output even for analog because the regular wave outputs are very static ridden. Creative's drivers here are still a mess so you have to go with those. The Creative drivers have a 2GB limit apparently.

A bit pathetic but better off than the other sound cards I have around from 10 years ago.

There is a "Live Support Pack" but it has that 2GB caveat.
http://forums.creative.com/t5/Sound-Blaster/SB-Live-series-Support-Pack-2-0-04-30-2010/m-p/556016

 

[BRiT]

It's a lot easier to have your gaming system hooked up to a receiver using the HDMI output from an AMD graphics card than it is to get anything Creative working without issues under Windows 7 or Vista.

 

[Davros]

and say goodbye to any audio processing

 

[BRiT]

Not true Davros. The audio stack in Vista / Windows 7 is done in software anyways, except for where Creative managed to patch in hardware acceleration. Do games still utilize OpenAL for audio or do they use Direct Audio?

 

[Davros]

well you certainly wont get any eax version over 2.0
plus I know openal can do eax 5 but only if theres an eax 5 supporting dsp
I dont think all the effects ae coded to run on a cpu

 

[swaaye]

Quite a few games use OpenAL. I think everything on Unreal Engine 2 and 3 use it, for example. But yeah there isn't a whole lot of reason to go through the effort of using a Creative card most of the time. A lot of games do fancy software audio processing now anyway.

It's just that I don't like using onboard audio for headphone output due to the extreme noise that every frequently have. Reminds me of Sound Blaster 16.

 

[Richard]

It's a lot easier to have your gaming system hooked up to a receiver using the HDMI output from an AMD graphics card than it is to get anything Creative working without issues under Windows 7 or Vista.

Hey, can you (or anyone else) go into more detail? I want to go this route in the system I'm building, mostly for simplifying the amount of cables, etc. etc. but not having tried it myself, what's the quality like?

 

[Rolf N]

Quite a few games use OpenAL. I think everything on Unreal Engine 2 and 3 use it, for example. But yeah there isn't a whole lot of reason to go through the effort of using a Creative card most of the time. A lot of games do fancy software audio processing now anyway.

It's just that I don't like using onboard audio for headphone output due to the extreme noise that every frequently have. Reminds me of Sound Blaster 16.

You could go with USB audio and be fully independent of mobo manufacturing shenanigans, present and future. I have an Edirol UA-1EX, and it's served me well, both as a dumb headphone amp and as a proper sound solution. I don't think it's on the market anymore though. Maybe take a look at the M-Audio Transit.

That said, the analog stereo out of my ASUS M4N78Pro sounds just fine to me.

 

[willardjuice]

r7xx/r8xx/gt300 -> receiver (through HDMI) -> real speakers

You'll never have to worry about audio quality again.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

So, is anyone else a little irked by the audio on mobos being advertised as high definition?

Have been overall satisfied with onboard HD audio by Realtek for quite a few years now. Moved from a X-Fi to onboard when I went dedicated Shuttle SFF's for a few years (nice being able to take your desktop with you when you travel).

The only issues I've run into in the MB's I've used is that the front audio jack is usually absolute crap in quality with line noise, and other undesirable noises. Rear audio jacks have almost univerally been great even with headphones compared to the X-Fi.

New MB's are even better, and the chipsets with Dolby Digital Live (real time Dolby encoding for multichannel through digital out) has worked flawlessly.

As well, the Realtek driven audio in the ATI series of video cards have been exceptional. Audio quality of the latest 5xxx cards is phenomenal. It was a very noticeable step up from the 3xxx cards and the audio is crystal clear over HDMI. Absolutely love the audio from my 5450, the best part of the whole thing.

Regards,
SB

 

[Albuquerque]

I've been similarly happy to SB in the RealTek solution on my Dell Inspiron E1505. Even with a good set of Denon over-ear cans, I don't get noise even at ridiculous volume. This was far better in Win7 and Vista than it was on the original XP Media Center OS though -- anything other than max-volume under XP results in "dithering" the audio output, which is complete shit.

 

[Lonbjerg]

On my motherboard I have the "ADI® AD2000B 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC".

I have listen to it for about 15 minuttes, then I plugged in my X-Fi again...my ears were hurting and I couldn't take the lack of clarity any more.

People how say they can't tell a difference between onboard sound and a add-in board, theymust either be runing very,very bad cans...or need to see a eardoctor.

 

[Rolf N]

On my motherboard I have the "ADI® AD2000B 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC".

I have listen to it for about 15 minuttes, then I plugged in my X-Fi again...my ears were hurting and I couldn't take the lack of clarity any more.

People how say they can't tell a difference between onboard sound and a add-in board, theymust either be runing very,very bad cans...or need to see a eardoctor.

Or, and this is a remote possibility, they may not have exactly the same motherboard as you. Crazy, I know.