AC97 or Azalia/Intel High definition Audio support viable?

[Sgt_Strider]

My dad is about to buy a laptop and those are the two possible internal audio support. Is it possible to achieve bit for bit quality sound quality with a AC 97 codec or Azalia (Inte's new high definition audio)? Also which one would sound better? Thanks!

 

[Sgt_Strider]

Bump, I really need some answers guys!

 

[Soundstorm]

High Definition Audio(HDA)/Azalia is better than AC97 codecs in sound quality, but it still doesn't sound as good as a soundcard with a good DAC like the AV-710, EMU0404/1212M etc.

 

[bLue_oNioN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soundstorm High Definition Audio(HDA)/Azalia is better than AC97 codecs in sound quality, but it still doesn't sound as good as a soundcard with a good DAC like the AV-710, EMU0404/1212M etc.

Why is that?

 

[dano1122]

all i know is ac97 = garbage

 

[bLue_oNioN]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dano1122 all i know is ac97 = garbage

Why is that?

 

[sgrossklass]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bLue_oNioN Why is that?

Simple. Mass-market cheapo codecs. Back in the day when AC97 reigned you could in fact get really decent codecs (e.g. CS4294), but nowadays AC97 codecs are cheap stuff from Realtek etc. that stinks. The improvement of HDA codecs has been more evolutionary than revolutionary. Besides, onboard sound solutions are usually highly space and mostly also cost restrained, which leaves little room for decent power filtering and other quality aspects. Even the humble Live! 24-bit is light years ahead of this. Basically, getting good sound out of a notebook involves an external sound solution. That'll be a good bit more expensive than a PCI card with comparable performance, but then mobile computing has never been exactly cheap.

 

[bLue_oNioN]

Would I be correct if I were to say "Just because a sound solution carries the AC97 label, doesn't automatically mean it is trash"?

 

[sgrossklass]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bLue_oNioN Would I be correct if I were to say "Just because a sound solution carries the AC97 label, doesn't automatically mean it is trash"?

Yes. My old DMX XFire 1024 (AC97 based) was really decent sounding - I used good-quality resampling, of course (these were the days prior to AC97 2.1 and variable sample rates). Most AC97 sound solutions, however, were optimized for low cost and space consumption, and that's what they sound like. (BTW, if you need something that sounds crappy yet is not AC97 based, look at the flood of cheapo CMI8738 based cards.)

 

[jiiteepee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sgt_Strider My dad is about to buy a laptop and those are the two possible internal audio support. Is it possible to achieve bit for bit quality sound quality with a AC 97 codec or Azalia (Inte's new high definition audio)? Also which one would sound better? Thanks!

Hi

Here is one review related to HDA boards http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/...l-hdaudio.html

Conclusions

Measurings and auditions proved that the High Definition Audio codec ALC880 is much better (RMAA - "Very good ") than the ÀÑ'97 codecs Sigmatel 9721 and ALC650 (RMAA - "Good"). Integrated High Definition Audio sounds better than a modern integrated ÀÑ'97-audio and five year old sound cards, and by the quality it stands near the three year old Creative Audigy, but it still cannot compare with modern sound cards like Audigy2 and higher. Thus we are witnessing the evolution of the ÀÑ'97 standard with an updated name (High Definition Audio), a slightly better audio quality in the hardware section, and support for high audio formats at 24 bit 96-192 kHz, admittedly not so necessary for users of low-end solutions, so we deliberately don't focus your attention on this support. Useful features include standard Universal Audio Architecture drivers from Microsoft and Sensaura with installed drivers from Realtek.

Also:
M$ has released update to it's Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) High Definition Audio class driver (version 1.0a). http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;888111

jiitee