Jumpman, what headphones are you using?
I can totally understand Scout Mode sounding a bit obnoxious, once upon a time I used to use it as a quick-to-activate night mode, but now I just legitimately turn on night mode when my ears feel fatigued after a long session.
I haven't compared it to the ALC1150, but I do have a realtek sound processor built into my gigabyte motherboard. For me, the even cheaper Omni was more detailed and had less "mud" around the notes in music, though the Omni was a bit brighter than the Realtek (and the G5). I haven't used the motherboards built-in audio for a long time now... The G5 also did much better supplying enough power for the AKG K612, thus supporting lower bass sounds better, so the G5 was the obvious choice. I got the G5 mostly just to test it out and review it, I've got a lot of options from a bunch of different manufacturers on my desk now.
I would urge you to try more games and music beyond CS:GO before passing judgement. I'm sure you have tried other games and observed how CS:GO has harsh, brittle, flat sound samples that are all about simple action cues and not about realism or richness? The Far Cry games and Battlefields have great sound samples, Destiny is pretty good too, Skyrim, The Witcher 3, Mass Effect 2&3... Some well mastered music files...
I can totally understand Scout Mode sounding a bit obnoxious, once upon a time I used to use it as a quick-to-activate night mode, but now I just legitimately turn on night mode when my ears feel fatigued after a long session.
I haven't compared it to the ALC1150, but I do have a realtek sound processor built into my gigabyte motherboard. For me, the even cheaper Omni was more detailed and had less "mud" around the notes in music, though the Omni was a bit brighter than the Realtek (and the G5). I haven't used the motherboards built-in audio for a long time now... The G5 also did much better supplying enough power for the AKG K612, thus supporting lower bass sounds better, so the G5 was the obvious choice. I got the G5 mostly just to test it out and review it, I've got a lot of options from a bunch of different manufacturers on my desk now.
I would urge you to try more games and music beyond CS:GO before passing judgement. I'm sure you have tried other games and observed how CS:GO has harsh, brittle, flat sound samples that are all about simple action cues and not about realism or richness? The Far Cry games and Battlefields have great sound samples, Destiny is pretty good too, Skyrim, The Witcher 3, Mass Effect 2&3... Some well mastered music files...