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.
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.