A word of warning about motherboard audio

[SSL]

So, the party line around here is that onboard is "good enough" for the typical audio budget under $200ish. While generally true, there are exceptions. Namely, this article shows that all is not rosy on the modern motherboard audio front:

MEASUREMENTS: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 (Creative Recon3Di) - Motherboard DAC / Audio Output

 

The most egregious problem is a very audible 3dB/octave roll-off in the bass. This is enough to rob any headphone of a lot of bass quantity. I would advise anyone with a motherboard sporting audio by Creative to check out the amp and DAC recommendation thread for an appropriate solution - or to avoid these motherboards altogether if you care about audio performance.

[2FA]

Honestly doesn't surprise me. It seems like recent generations of boards are focusing more on gimicky hardware as well as design as a way of "L33T MLG AUDIO." Not necessarily always the COD gamer marketing but definitely not advertising realistically as they could be.  

[SSL]

2 minutes ago, DeadEyePsycho said:

Honestly doesn't surprise me. It seems like recent generations of boards are focusing more on gimicky hardware as well as design as a way of "L33T MLG AUDIO." Not necessarily always the COD gamer marketing but definitely not advertising realistically as they could be.  

 

My theory is that this is a deliberate ploy to push people towards their branded aftermarket soundcards. I can't think of any other logical reason to put such an abysmal audio implementation on a modern motherboard.

[2FA]

4 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

My theory is that this is a deliberate ploy to push people towards their branded aftermarket soundcards. I can't think of any other logical reason to put such an abysmal audio implementation on a modern motherboard.

We made it "good" but if you buy our sound card, your audio will be soooo much "better." 

[SSL]

1 minute ago, DeadEyePsycho said:

We made it "good" but if you buy our sound card, your audio will be soooo much "better." 

 

Exaaactly.

[Curufinwe_wins]

32 minutes ago, SSL said:

 

Exaaactly.

 

33 minutes ago, DeadEyePsycho said:

We made it "good" but if you buy our sound card, your audio will be soooo much "better." 

 

Just reminding everyone else (not really you guys), this does NOT serve as a recommendation for pcie sound cards, and as is explicitly mentioned in this article, this is with all likelihood the exact equivalent to the  Sound Blaster Recon3D,  In fact the author goes on to suggest this bass roll off may be an intentional "feature" as part of it's design for 3d spatial awareness in gaming settings.

[Dackzy]

ah yes, I also found this a couple of minutes ago, guess you beat me to it, but from my understanding it is "only" the z170 boards with creative sound on them, older boards with older solutions should be fine, at least I have not been able to find a problem with them. I recommend people staying away from everything from creative like I do, I have seen enough fuck ups from them to stay away from them.

[iEatBalls]

Thanks for posting this, now I know what motherboards I should avoid.

[BrightCandle]

I have that board and agree, the performance of the onboard was pretty bad for analog output. I use a Magni/modi now with toslink and just use the software side of the card to add the SBX pro for games that work well with it. I found the output extremely poor compared to a Soundblaster Z but SBX is the same.