is onboard hd audio any good?

[LCR_Dave]

hi guys ive got a gigabyte s series mobo, ive read on here that onboard hd audio is rubbish and a seperate sound card is best? is there any truth to this?
Dave

[Prism666]

It depends how you want to connect it up. If you want to use the spdif port to connect to a receiver then it really doesn't matter at all

If you are planning on using the 7.1 analogue ports to plug into a receiver then it 'might' be important. Some of the later onboard chips are rated higher than most of the older and cheaper dedicated soundcards. I would suggest you would be looking to spend about £100 for one of the better cards before it makes any difference to sound quality. Also, you would probably only be able to tell if your receiver and speakers are good quality

One of the best onboard chips around at the moment is the Realtek 889a which is on many of the recent gigabyte motherboards. Its got good ratings and does very well in the reviews I have read comparing well to the current crop of £100 plus soundcards

[LCR_Dave]

great thanks for the reply

[meansizzler]

If using the analogue outs, then forget it, the DAC's for theonbaord audio are pretty bad, terrible sound compared to even a simple sound blaster, if you don't one to spend much then get an audigy 2 zs from ebay. miles better than the onboard stuff...HD-DVD's sound great with the ZS...

[Prism666]

Originally Posted by meansizzler

the DAC's for theonbaord audio are pretty bad, terrible sound compared to even a simple sound blaster,

Some onboard DACS are pretty bad, however some are better than a dedicated soundcard - especially one thats a few years old now

[dogbert]

the biggest boost in quality is achievable with an external amplifier which can be digitally fed from any source without loss (given that the driver doesn't do some kind of processing, e.g. "Crystalizer"). an external amp doesn't have to lift the SNR against the noise floor of a regular PC which makes it the best choice for most users.

[LCR_Dave]

oh well ill give it a try tonight hopefully using the analouge output on the mobo, if it sound rubbish ill change to a soundcard, one question though, does my amp have to support stuff like dolby true hd and hd-dts to play it? i know it does normal dts fine...

[mossym]

Originally Posted by dogbert

the biggest boost in quality is achievable with an external amplifier which can be digitally fed from any source without loss (given that the driver doesn't do some kind of processing, e.g. "Crystalizer"). an external amp doesn't have to lift the SNR against the noise floor of a regular PC which makes it the best choice for most users.

unfortunately for HD formats that's not possible, so it's not the best choice for most users.

[dogbert]

unfortunately for HD formats that's not possible, so it's not the best choice for most users.

not yet possible - with the HDMI standard, there'll hopefully be receivers with HDMI inputs all over the market in a few month's time.
The advantages of the HD formats can't be played out on a PC for the most part due to the underlying constraints of both the hardware and the software. Also, the source material is a limiting factor, especially when it comes to music - the so called "loudness war" of the last two decades has become the most eminent cause of quality deterioration.

[mossym]

Originally Posted by dogbert

not yet possible - with the HDMI standard, there'll hopefully be receivers with HDMI inputs all over the market in a few month's time.
The advantages of the HD formats can't be played out on a PC for the most part due to the underlying constraints of both the hardware and the software. Also, the source material is a limiting factor, especially when it comes to music - the so called "loudness war" of the last two decades has become the most eminent cause of quality deterioration.

receivers? plenty of those already. what's needed is soundcards or graphics cards with hdmi out that support bitstreaming of the hd formats. or pcm out would be nice too.

and not much point in telling the op what the ideal solution is when it doesn't exist. unitl it does he may as well make the most of what he can, flawed though it may be

[Prism666]

Originally Posted by mossym

and not much point in telling the op what the ideal solution is when it doesn't exist. unitl it does he may as well make the most of what he can, flawed though it may be

Well the hdmi solution is possible now but only with the correct receiver/motherboard combination.

As it stands Powerdvd 7 should be able to output 7.1 PCM and TrueHD extracted to PCM over the G35 motherboards and the nvidia 8200 boards (which at least one supplier in the uk reckons they have in stock)

The Powerdvd 8 beta kicking around at the moment claims to support DTS-HD MA too

Personally, if I was going to go the analogue route for the time being I would stick to a decent onboard Realtek chip with Vista as the microsoft driver has the room correction capablities that you lose when using analogue in on most receivers. I'm not sure which other soundcards have this capability

[mossym]

Originally Posted by Prism666

Well the hdmi solution is possible now but only with the correct receiver/motherboard combination.

As it stands Powerdvd 7 should be able to output 7.1 PCM and TrueHD extracted to PCM over the G35 motherboards and the nvidia 8200 boards (which at least one supplier in the uk reckons they have in stock)

The Powerdvd 8 beta kicking around at the moment claims to support DTS-HD MA too

Personally, if I was going to go the analogue route for the time being I would stick to a decent onboard Realtek chip with Vista as the microsoft driver has the room correction capablities that you lose when using analogue in on most receivers. I'm not sure which other soundcards have this capability

interesting. will watch to see if that should turns into a does

and i'd trust the room correction in my amp before i'd trust it in a couple of dollars chip on a motherboard.

[dogbert]

Originally Posted by mossym

receivers? plenty of those already. what's needed is soundcards or graphics cards with hdmi out that support bitstreaming of the hd formats. or pcm out would be nice too.

most middle and lower class receivers still lack HDMI connectivity.

and not much point in telling the op what the ideal solution is when it doesn't exist. unitl it does he may as well make the most of what he can, flawed though it may be

there's no point in investing money into half-baked solutions when there are fully capable and cheap HDMI cards maybe half a year away.

and i'd trust the room correction in my amp before i'd trust it in a couple of dollars chip on a motherboard.

that stuff is actually done in software, and you might be able to enable it for regular drivers by tweaking the inf file.

[mossym]

Originally Posted by dogbert

most middle and lower class receivers still lack HDMI connectivity.


there's no point in investing money into half-baked solutions when there are fully capable and cheap HDMI cards maybe half a year away.


that stuff is actually done in software, and you might be able to enable it for regular drivers by tweaking the inf file.

maybe being the key word, they could be a year away, 18 months away..

and for the same reason you mention performance of the output of a soundcard being limited by the pc, do you not think any measurements that same soundcard make would be limited by the same amount? you'll have that same noise floor for room correction measurements as you would for normal playback

[dogbert]

maybe being the key word, they could be a year away, 18 months away..

The HD stuff has gained momentum now that the format war is over, and from a rough view over the HDMI specs, my guess is that the HDMI audio stuff isn't that hard to cast into silicon, so we're maybe half a year away from good HDMI solutions.

and for the same reason you mention performance of the output of a soundcard being limited by the pc, do you not think any measurements that same soundcard make would be limited by the same amount? you'll have that same noise floor for room correction measurements as you would for normal playback

that's a good point - the question boils down to how well the noise for the room estimation can be minimized by making multiple measurements. I haven't taken a closer look at the stuff yet because I've abandoned Vista due to its plethora of annoyances, so I can't judge how well it works.