HD Audio Codec comparisons between ADI, Sigmatel/IDT, Relatek Conexant

[aprofromindia]

Guys can some of you give me your 2 cents on the various hda audio codecs in the planet mainly between ADI, Sigmatel, Conexant & Realtek. I know Realtek is the worst as sis clearly evident from the recent Toshiba I bought.

Now I know discreet cards are better, but I want a laptop and I think HDA codecs are good enough for mp3 playback on my Audioengine A5's.

Also if possible there performance on Vista WaveRT would be interesting!

So please some suggestions or links would be much appreciated!

 

[Modelworks]

Actually audio codecs have come a long way from the years of AC 97.
Realtek actually makes some very good codecs now compared to what was available. Really the only advantage to codecs on cards now are in gaming or the recording industry. Often the codec isn't the problem but the associated circuitry, cheap op amps, poor trace routing. Personally I use Realtek HD with optical out. I have used M-audio , Via Envy - still one of my favorites, and Cmedia based cards from auzentech.
Never been a fan of the creative products.

 

[aprofromindia]

Yeah but if you use SPDIF, obviously you are not using the analog codec. I want to use to the analogue out from my laptop. I quiet like my STAC9200 from XPS 17100m, but I want to buy a new laptop and would love to have the best audio codec on it.

As I said before I recently bought a Toshiba L300 for my friend and was appalled by the lack of fidelity in the Realtek codec.

Actually Toshiba uses Realtek even in their Qosmio laptops, weird??

One thing I have noticed, good companies, like Intel, Dell, Lenovo, HP never use Realtek codec, I think this is a good testament of their analogue audio quality!

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: aprofromindia
Yeah but if you use SPDIF, obviously you are not using the analog codec. I want to use to the analogue out from my laptop. I quiet like my STAC9200 from XPS 17100m, but I want to buy a new laptop and would love to have the best audio codec on it.

The codec is responsible for processing the audio. The DAC feeds the opamps that are responsible for what you hear. The DAC in the realtek HD codec is capable of 97db SNR if used. You still have to use the codec, even if you are using SPDIF.

As I said before I recently bought a Toshiba L300 for my friend and was appalled by the lack of fidelity in the Realtek codec.

Actually Toshiba uses Realtek even in their Qosmio laptops, weird??

One thing I have noticed, good companies, like Intel, Dell, Lenovo, HP never use Realtek codec, I think this is a good testament of their analogue audio quality!

Dell does use them.

How are you listening to the output ?
If you are using headphones, then you are using the integrated amplifier in the codec and that is going to sound poor regardless of codec used as they are not intended for driving headphones directly with high quality. You would need to find a headphone output driven from high quality opamps from a codec output. Something not easy to find on notebooks as it drives up the parts cost. Notebooks are designed so that the one codec chip can support everything a typical notebook user would need, or LPC (low parts count)

The best way to get quality sound from a laptop is to use an external sound card via usb. One like this:

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-EMU-0202-LIST

 

[cheesehead]

If you want audio, the ESS Sabre trumps all.

http://www.esstech.com/product...audio/digitalaudio.php