I’m new and have a question about motherboard audio

[Grizzlyy]

I’m going to probably end up getting the Asus Prime H670 Plus Atx LGA 1700 motherboard and I’m wondering if the on board sound is good enough for over ear headphones or if I need a sound card?

[rice guru]

For the most part you should be fine running gear. Anything very high impedance or low sensitivity you might run into issues. 

[Entropy.]

1 hour ago, Grizzlyy said:

I’m going to probably end up getting the Asus Prime H670 Plus Atx LGA 1700 motherboard and I’m wondering if the on board sound is good enough for over ear headphones or if I need a sound card?

It's really going to come down to what you try to use with the motherboard. Most gaming and "consumer" (think wired sony wh-1000xm4's and the like) headphones should be fine- albeit most of them aren't really recommended. 

[Psittac]

Basically onboard audio is on par with any internal audio card.  These day's when people want more they go with external solutions like a dac/amp combo or seperate dac and amp.

[Grizzlyy]

1 hour ago, Psittac said:

Basically onboard audio is on par with any internal audio card.  These day's when people want more they go with external solutions like a dac/amp combo or seperate dac and amp.

Thanks for the info!

[H713]

8 hours ago, Psittac said:

Basically onboard audio is on par with any internal audio card.  These day's when people want more they go with external solutions like a dac/amp combo or seperate dac and amp.

Not really. Depends heavily on the internal card. There are some really cheap, really crappy internal cards and some really great internal cards.

 

The EVGA Nu Audio is a pretty good internal card (though it's really a USB interface with a built-in PCIe to USB interface), and the Lynx E22 will deliver exceptional performance. I don't know if they still make internal cards, but historically RME has made some excellent PCIe cards as well.

 

The main issue with motherboard audio, aside from limited power, is that it often has a pretty high output impedance - sometimes something ridiculous like 50 or 75 ohms. That's not what you want for driving low impedance dynamic headphones. 

[ShearMe]

57 minutes ago, H713 said:

The main issue with motherboard audio, aside from limited power, is that it often has a pretty high output impedance - sometimes something ridiculous like 50 or 75 ohms. That's not what you want for driving low impedance dynamic headphones. 

Yeah, but it works fine for the average consumer. Divide by zero and the value is unprecedented.