[Nezer]

This is JUST what I need to help warm-up my MP3s!

 

[Dusty Chalk]

It appears to be a 6922. Scroll down to just past half-way and click on the leetool pictures to get bigger ones. That's a healthy cap in there, too:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MzAy

PS Hey, look, MacDEF, I didn't start a 5th thread...

 

[thomas]

maybe the cardas wiring will reduce the jitter in the computer's bus, so the picture will be clearer on your monitor, your printer will print more clearly, and you'll get an extra 10 FPS in quake 3

 

[evilcthul]

Multicaps and Cardas wire!

But a Realtek 'AC97 chipset?

Wassup wit dat?

 

[Phloodpants]

Yuck! Looking at the datasheet for that Realtek AC '97 codec and it's pretty piss-poor!

Some highlights...

Quote:

S/N (A-weighted) ADC 85db DAC 85db (Front DAC with headphone amp) THD+N ADC -80db DAC -75db (Front DAC with headphone amp) Power Supply Rejection (DAC, ADC) -68db Crosstalk -70db

Consider that these are lab measurements that are probably done outside of a computer using a smooth analog power supply. Once inside a computer, things probably get worse.
Notice the PSRR is lousy, which doesn't help!

Now, I'm not saying this codec will necessarily SOUND bad, although it certainly measures bad! Putting a tube amp on this is as pearls to swine!

Marketing gimmick. Pure and simple.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Dusty Chalk It appears to be a 6922.

It is, but its Sovtek crap.

Gotta roll that puppy out of there fast.

 

[grinch]

my only grip is that the stock tube is a sovtek.. i can't wait to tube roll a pentium4!

taken from hardocp.com:

One of the greatest gripes about onboard sound today in the mainboard market is the quality of the sound. While there have been solid advancements and onboard sound has certainly grown leaps and bounds in the last year, AOpen wanted to come in and do it like no other company has.

While no full specs were yet available to us, AOpen has taken a lead from the high-end audio component producers and used a vacuum tube system on their mainboard which they say produces overall sound quality that cannot be duplicated on silicon.

The first picture shows the overall board layout. The sound components are clearly visible at the lower edge of the board. You might also notice only three PCI slots. AOpen has also included an onboard NIC on this board. Considering that, and the fact that anyone purchasing this board is very likely to use the onboard sound, AOpen sees three PCI slots as being plenty.

Close ups of the tube and other components show off that this isn't just for decoration. The header that you see in the second picture above is not a power header, but rather the plug that handles the audio out jacks.

You old guys will remember that vacuum tubes need some high-end power as well. AOpen has fitted the board with components spec'ed at twice the 200 volt power requirement by the tube system in order to produce a solid and stable platform. Seems to be no skimping here.

This last picture shows the AX4B-533Tube running an audio system in the AOpen booth, and from what we heard, their tube board seems to be just what the audiophile may be looking for. Another interesting software feature that will be shipped with the board is CD Player software. While this does not seem to be anything new, AOpen's solution can run the CD player without booting into a Windows OS. The CD Player loads immediately after the BIOS.

full article from computex can be found here

(this is the first thread i've ever started, so please somebody read it)

 

[jpelg]

Curious. Not being a tube-head...yet

...

How prone are tubes to burn-out due to power surges or fast power off/on's?

Something that requires frequent reboots like most of the home Windoze OS might be problematic, no? Definitely need a more solid OS (NT4, 2000, Linux, OS/2) to prevent that. Otherwise it could get expensive.

 

[dhwilkin]

This topic must hold the record for "Most Duplicate Threads" award.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showth...threadid=12539

 

[grinch]

i don't believe a reboot removes power from the system, it simply restarts it (not sure though). but as the article says:

Quote:

AOpen has fitted the board with components spec'ed at twice the 200 volt power requirement by the tube system in order to produce a solid and stable platform. Seems to be no skimping here.

it sounds like it'll be okay.. just as long as you don't cold boot the system very often. i would imagine the power system doesn't flicker to the tube stage during reboots.

besides, it would be a sin to run a pentium 4 on something as crappy as windows 98.. xp is based on 2k kernel, and it doesn't need reboots that frequently (in my experience).

 

[CaptBubba]

To further improve tube life you could set up a 30 second slow turn on high voltage supply because you won't need sound until the computer has booted.

Sounds like an interesting idea, but I thinkit will be more picked up by the people who like to mod their cases and such because it will look different. Think about the problems with EMI in a computer case!

 

[tanfenton]

What better a choice than the most microphonic of small-signal tubes!

NGF

 

[jpelg]

Quote:

I thinkit will be more picked up by the people who like to mod their cases and such because it will look different. Think about the problems with EMI in a computer case!

Yeah, I would want to show that baby off with a clear case or one with a visible glass/plastic cutout!

 

[MacDEF]

Merge#3 (or 4, I've lost track)

 

[Phloodpants]

Grinch, I don't want to assume you agree with this statement just because you quoted it from OCP...

Quote:

AOpen has taken a lead from the high-end audio component producers and used a vacuum tube system on their mainboard which they say produces overall sound quality that cannot be duplicated on silicon

...but clearly the sound is ultimately coming from a very cheap and very crappy AC97 codec chip, which is most definitely made of silicon.

No tube can un-silicon that lousy codec!

Please tell me you're not really falling for this...