[ingenero]

Well I'm in the market for upgrading my PC which I use for design, audio listening and a bit of FPS gaming. I've decided for the Z97 chipset, and I'm seeing the Asus Maximus VII Gene as a probable candidate mostly for the mATX form factor but I'm open to ideas.
 
I'm currently using my beloved Audigy SE and I want to know if any of the touted Audio components in this generation of MOBOs are an actual upgrade over the SE, I've seen the following "platforms" being offered by MOBO manufacturers:
 

1. Creative Sound Core3D (Gigabyte, AsRock, others)
2. Realtek ALC1150 (Mostly ASUS)

 
It's funny because the game I play the most (Quake Live) don't have any special 3D audio enhancements so surround gimmicks are not that important to me (for now, might want to get back into gaming later), the SE can drive my HD668B 50% higher that I would listen to and, overall, SQ is just a single line in my checklist before I decide for one MOBO. 
 
I'm asking mostly what have been your experiences with this generation of integrated audio, how you use it, what to avoid, if it's an upgrade over my SE or you just ended upgrading to a Xonar/external DAC. Cheers!

 

[GREQ]

Since you're probably not going to get a response to this question I'll just chip in with other experiences I've had.
 
New mobos from the past 5 or so years have much better sounding audio than the old mobos from 10-15 years ago.
If it's just stereo speakers or headphones, most people will hear no difference.
The only thing you must not do, is use the front audio port which is almost always noisy due to electrical interference. 
Use the back ports and it will be fine.
 
Spending $50-100 for 'gaming' soundcards is mostly for the studio options you won't ever use, the 7.1 you won't ever use, the buggy software that often has awful default processing settings that ruin the sound quality (like some on-board sound chips too! - Realtek for example) and extra connectors.
 
I use a 5 euro external USB DAC from ebay for my work machine because the on-board sound didn't have quite enough power for my vintage 600 ohm DT990.. but the sound quality is about the same.
 
Just turn off all the 'sound effects' and post-processing, and the sound will be fine even for FPS games like Quake, which have more than adequate sound processing in the game-software which is enough for positional sound cues. 
You don't need any of that 'surround sound' processing. That's mostly marketing stuff as it doesn't add anything to the sound quality or gaming experience.
 
Your headphone is sensitive and therefore doesn't need a special soundcard or amp to enjoy it. 

 

[ingenero]

  Spending $50-100 for 'gaming' soundcards is mostly for the studio options you won't ever use, the 7.1 you won't ever use, the buggy software that often has awful default processing settings that ruin the sound quality (like some on-board sound chips too! - Realtek for example) and extra connectors.
 

 
You're right I don't consider myself a gamer although I don't discard getting more games as soon as I have the new PC. I also watch some movies/anime and have 5.1 speakers for which the Audigy works just fine. Maybe I should just keep the SE and find a MOBO that supports PCI and be done with it. 
 
Another mobo that caught my attention is the Gigabyte G1 Sniper,  on paper seems like the best audio currently on a motherboard (Creative + user replaceable OpAmp + Plated connectors FWIW) but feature wise is not as good as the Asus line, I have good experiences with Asus in the reliability camp, which is the top feature for me on a MOBO
 
I'm in desperate need of a proper source for my music if I can't resurrect my 4G iPod I will probably go with the Fiio X1 and keep what it works in the MOBO, after 5 years (and much drama) Creative decided to deliver drivers for Win7 but I'm 100% sure there is no hope for Win10 drivers for such an old SC, so I try to plan now for my PC audio once I decide to go with Win10.
 
in the music department. Anybody else have any comparisons between recent MOBO audio and dedicated sources? 

 

[PurpleAngel]

  You're right I don't consider myself a gamer although I don't discard getting more games as soon as I have the new PC. I also watch some movies/anime and have 5.1 speakers for which the Audigy works just fine. Maybe I should just keep the SE and find a MOBO that supports PCI and be done with it. 
Another mobo that caught my attention is the Gigabyte G1 Sniper,  on paper seems like the best audio currently on a motherboard (Creative + user replaceable OpAmp + Plated connectors FWIW) but feature wise is not as good as the Asus line, I have good experiences with Asus in the reliability camp, which is the top feature for me on a MOBO
I'm in desperate need of a proper source for my music if I can't resurrect my 4G iPod I will probably go with the Fiio X1 and keep what it works in the MOBO, after 5 years (and much drama) Creative decided to deliver drivers for Win7 but I'm 100% sure there is no hope for Win10 drivers for such an old SC, so I try to plan now for my PC audio once I decide to go with Win10.
in the music department. Anybody else have any comparisons between recent MOBO audio and dedicated sources? 

 
Mid priced motherboard's with built in SoundCore3D audio processor use the DAC feature built into the Sound Core3D
The Creative Sound Blaster Z sound card also comes with the SoundCore3D, but also comes with a CS4398 DAC chip
So the sound card (SB-Z) should provide better audio quality, then the on-board (built in) audio.
I'm going to guess that from now till the weekend after Thanksgiving, someone is going to the the SB-Z on sale.