[Shmitty]

From the looks of it it seems this would be pretty good. Right now I have a Creative X-Fi HD USB sound card but the more I read the worse it sounds for a DAC. I've got some Sennheiser HD380's plan on buying some UE Triple-Fi 10's when they go on sale this winter and trying my hand at a pair of Thunderpants (grandfather who lives up the road from me has a cabinate making shop and loads of time). I'm going to be switching my MB/CPU/Ram in a few weeks.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-128-510&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo

 

[PurpleAngel]

I'm really dumb, what's the question?

 

[Shmitty]

The question is in the title sorry guess I should have restated. The onboard of that motherboard appears to be pretty good, would it be a good source? I tend to give more detail then is needed.

 

[francisdemarte]

 
If your upgrading your system anyway it won't cost you anything to try it and see if you like it. The general consensus here is that on board audio sucks. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[buffalowings]

this is actually my mobo in my current computer, onboard isn't as bad as people on headfi believe, i cant tell the difference between my ipodclassic/ibasso t3d and the realtek 889
 
try it for yourself
 
 

 

[trog]

Well in your shoes if my PC is the source and i am thinking of demanding cans in the future i would either go
 
a. Fiio E10 if budget is sub $100 or
b. PCI/PCIe sound card (if u really want EAX, etc) + Fiio E9 desktop headphone amplifier

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Well in your shoes if my PC is the source and i am thinking of demanding cans in the future i would either go
a. Fiio E10 if budget is sub $100 or
b. PCI/PCIe sound card (if u really want EAX, etc) + Fiio E9 desktop headphone amplifier

With a sound card with a good built in headphone amplifier, you will not need an external headphone amplifier.
 
You can also get a single tube headphone amplifier for $55, off eBay, ships from China, takes ten days.
and plug it into the built in sound card.
 
 
 

 

[trog]

Ya was thinking in the case of hard to drive 600ohms cans

 

[Handy Ray]

The onboard is probably clean enough for driving low impedance phones and doing non-critical listening like gaming and multimedia duty.  Something off-board will get you the best music performance.  If you are spending a few hundred dollars max for a good sound solution, you might as well pick up a good all in one unit that runs off the USB or something.  So you can easily move it from build to build and place to place.  Quite a few decent choices in the low hundreds range.

 

[Handy Ray]

Oh, and if you take a look at that board (and any board now a days, except very few), they actually use all solid capacitors, even for the coupling in the audio section!!  And if you look at the value of those capacitors, it is clear that they can't drive really low impedance phones unless the output impedance is really high (which is in itself stupid).  Its all about marketing.  Gigabyte gives you proper coupling capacitors in the highest of the highest models of their motherboards, and they even advertise this difference.

 

[nagual]

I thought, or the markenting make me to, solid caps were even superior to the  eletrolytc japanese ones.  I´ve seen them in many top end sound-cards.

 

[buffalowings]

Quote:

Oh, and if you take a look at that board (and any board now a days, except very few), they actually use all solid capacitors, even for the coupling in the audio section!!  And if you look at the value of those capacitors, it is clear that they can't drive really low impedance phones unless the output impedance is really high (which is in itself stupid).  Its all about marketing.  Gigabyte gives you proper coupling capacitors in the highest of the highest models of their motherboards, and they even advertise this difference.

have you even listened off a gigabyte motherboard and carefully compared it to another "superior" source? especially the gigabyte ud3 990fx which is a rather high end motherboard 
 
 

 

[sonci]

Quote:

Oh, and if you take a look at that board (and any board now a days, except very few), they actually use all solid capacitors, even for the coupling in the audio section!!  And if you look at the value of those capacitors, it is clear that they can't drive really low impedance phones unless the output impedance is really high (which is in itself stupid).  Its all about marketing.  Gigabyte gives you proper coupling capacitors in the highest of the highest models of their motherboards, and they even advertise this difference.

This seems true, I noticed some higher end gigabyte boards like this, to have different capacitors in the audio section. Nice touch by Gigabyte, don't know if other brands are doing the same. Usually expensive motherboards are all about the graphics and cpu benchmarks.
 
 


Quote:

I thought, or the markenting make me to, solid caps were even superior to the  eletrolytc japanese ones.  I´ve seen them in many top end sound-cards.

Solid capacitors, even though can last forever are not the best for audio application. (Still my Auzentech Prelude is doing fine)
 

 

[Shmitty]

Quote:

have you even listened off a gigabyte motherboard and carefully compared it to another "superior" source? especially the gigabyte ud3 990fx which is a rather high end motherboard 
 
 

So I'm assuming you have, would you recommend this as opposed to me buying a 100 dollar so DAC? I'm not super critical though quality does matter to me. I'm having a O2 build by a friend as soon as the parts come in.

 

[nagual]

Quote:

 
Solid capacitors, even though can last forever are not the best for audio application. (Still my Auzentech Prelude is doing fine)
 

Do you know why ?