Is it just me, or do newer computers generally have very good built-in audio?

[matanoosh]

that's encouraging, no doubt. is it enough for you to hook up to your headphone rig for an enjoyable listening experience?

 

[voon]

For me? Yes. Then again I'm not an audiophile. I don't need a 1500 Dollar amplifier to accept the outcome as "just acceptable sound". Of course, with things like a D10, I can vary the sound with the opamps and it's better with optical than onboard sound etc, like already said. I have to do more listening to it .. for now I seem to hear a hiss, when nothing plays, but maybe that was the few sounds i listene to, And it was trance: Lots of edgy synthesizers and loud, so that's probably not the music someone else would use to test their setup. I'll have to check what it does to Jazz (which I don't like usually) or classical pieces. Also, I tend to listen to mp3s, but usually at high encoding rates (192+). So, if you're an audiophile, noticing the slightest details, spaces, positionings etc .... maybe the onboard realtek is nothing for you. ALl I'm saying is: I can enjoy onboard sound with this modern chipset in the Asus B50, without being irritated.

 

[Makenshi]

I've been using Realtek ALC883 for the longest time (from the P965 board I purchased about 2 years back). Still sounds better than the onboard laptop on my new Toshiba Sattelite, but not by much. However, ever since purchasing these ES7 I can't help but noticed how much hiss is on both of the onboard sound cards (previously I thought CX500 was just hissing due to canal phones being more sensitive). Maxing the volume and using E5 to lower the volume reduces the hiss but it's still present. Just bought a Xonar U1 and hopefully that will remedy the problem. Any SQ improvement will be a bonus, though I'm not holding my breath having paid $38 AR.

 

[Reader]

IMO new onboard sounds are usable, but that's it, it's not anywhere close to good.

 

[auee]

I absolutely agree that the sound has improved, but it is still noticeably inferior to a decent external DAC and headphone amp. There is no avoiding this and if the onboard sound was the only option I would not be interested in computer sourced audio.

 

[tomb]

I recently built a new PC using a new Intel multimedia motherboard. The onboard sound is better than an M-Audio Transit that I have. I consider that pretty dang good.

 

[krmathis]

I think you are on to something.
Newer computers, especially Apple ones have excellent built-in audio.

 

[Zaubertuba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shahrose /img/forum/go_quote.gif Absolutely. Onboard sound for example, has surpassed many discrete soundcards from a few years back.

Maybe I'm the exception to the rule, but my experience has been very different. A short while back, when I yanked my First-Generation Audigy card from my system and went to the much newer onboard Realtek888 audio, I noticed a significant drop in sound quality. The noise floor in particular was a lot higher with the onboard chip--annoyingly so. That in itself drove me to purchase a better discrete card.

From a lot of comments here, I expect it may have to with the component implementation on the MB more than the quality of the Realtek chip itself. Note my MB is a cheaper Gigabyte unit.

So, I guess the moral is to do your research carefully when buying a MB.