best onboard sound chipset (not nforce)

[Davegod75]

I'm looking around at all these new p4 boards and there are too many different onboard audio chipsets to count.

Which in your opinion is the best. ( i.e. could replace my TB Santa cruz)

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

The onboard sound on the Albatron 865PE Pro II is kick ass. The Envy chipset by Via produces some of the best onboard sound ever.

The new Soundmax enabled Analog Devices chips are also quite good.

 

[Peter]

Wrong question.

What you need to look at is how good the mainboard's design is in the area around the audio codec, and how low this codec's potential signal-to-noise ratio is on a perfect design.

The chipset actually doesn't do much toward or against audio quality - since in there, all audio processing is digital and lossless. The conversion happens out in the codec.

S/N ratio in common six channel codecs seems to be worst with Realtek's, better with C-Media's, and best with VIA's. As I said, good or bad mainboard design does much more to the resulting quality than the choice of codec between these three.

(This is what NVidia's SoundStorm certification is about - making sure the sound output is of a certain minimum quality. That aside, it's a plain normal chipset+codec solution.)

 

[Peter]

Oh, same of course for onboard sound solutions that don't use the chipset, but put a separate PCI audio engine on. These are either single-chip solutions that integrate the engine and the codec in one, like C-Media's 8738; or they're two-piece like VIA's Envy24 solution. In either, it's again the mainboard design's task to keep it noise free - it's easier with two piece approaches than with single-chip solutions.

 

[Davegod75]

thanks for the info. hmm..i'm not much of an albatron fan. I like asus but i think they use the realtek solution on the p4p800.

 

[optimistic]

How about this, is this any good?

Analog Devices AD1985 codec

 

[GetInMyFatBelly]

The best onboard sound: My vote is for the Albatron board with the VIA Envy24PT chip or the Chaintech 9CJS Zenith with the same 96kHz/24Bit 7.1 channel sound. I should recieve my Chaintech board today. You may want to look into AOpen's Tube boards, I know that at least one of theirs uses the new VIA Envy24PT chip, but can't find which one, they also have a nForce2 board with Tube.

 

[NicColt]

How about this, is this any good? Analog Devices AD1985 codec

In my opinion the AD1985 codec is the best onboard sound there is and add Asus's Soundmax and your in. BTW I think that the AD1985 codec is the only one that can offer EAX and A3D onboard and Virtual Theater is the Dolby Digital equivalent.

About SoundMAX from Analog Devices
SoundMAX Digital Audio Systems from Analog Devices are premium-performance PC audio solutions that exceed the functionality of sound cards. Offering outstanding audio quality and state-of-the-art technologies for playback of music CDs, MP3/WMA files, DVD movie soundtracks, MIDI music, Internet audio and enhanced game audio, SoundMAX delivers the ultimate audio experience on today?s PCs for business professionals, audio enthusiasts, musicians and gamers.

SoundMAX offers a flexible feature set, giving PC OEMs, motherboard manufacturers, and integrators the opportunity to customize the functionality of their audio solution. Residing on the PC?s motherboard, the SoundMAX-class of audio CODECs are available in both 2- and 6-channel configurations and offer variable sample rate conversion (SRC), professional quality 103-dB output with 94-dB SNR, software-configurable speaker EQ, and analog enumeration capability. Integrated into the PC?s audio subsystem, the SoundMAX feature set includes a state-of-the-art DLS2 MIDI synthesizer with the popular Yamaha DLSbyXG sound set, the award-winning Sensaura 5.1 Virtual Theater? surround sound, and support for all major game audio technologies, including Microsoft DirectX? 8.0, Microsoft DirectSound 3D?, A3D, MacroFX, ZoomFX, MultiDrive 5.1, A3D, EAX and SoundMAX SPX?

 

[Davegod75]

cool..now i wouldn't feel all that bad using the AD