[cvince]

I know it's a silly question, but please bear with me as I'm quite new to the audio world.

Will the MSI K8N integrated audio sound any worse than the Chaintech AV-710 if I'm not using onboard DACs?

I'm thinking of buying a Zhaolu D2 (which will be connected to a Gilmore lite headamp and a pair of Grado HF-1s), and seeing how the K8N has onboard S/PIDF with an external Coaxial jack, I'm wondering if it'll sound any worse than the Digital Optical out on the Chaintech AV-710.
I read that digital out bypasses all on-board DACs, so you can use an external DAC for better sound. If there is no difference between MSI coax and Chaintech optical I wouldn't mind saving $30-40 by skipping the AV-710 and just connecting the Zhaolu straight to my motherboard.

 

[Tachikoma]

Very few integrated soundcards (if any) can give you bit-perfect output (due to forced resampling to 48khz), so an AV-710 should sound better even if its only being used for its optical output.