Will Realtek audio ever be good?

[AdamK47]

It still baffles me just how bad on board Realtek audio still is. It's even more so baffling that Asus and the others have chosen it for their high end X79 motherboards. I currently own an Asus Xonar Essence STX and a Creative Labs X-Fi. For headphone use, the Realtek chip/drivers just don't cut it for either music listening, watching movies, or playing games. These motherboards are supposed to be for enthusists who want quality. Given a choice between having Realtek audio on a motherboard vs non at all, I would chose none at all and put my own in. It's a waste of motherboard real estate.

 

[stahlhart]

Ten years of downloaded MP3 audio, ten years of lowered expectations.

 

[wirednuts]

have you turned up the sampling rates in the sound properties? realtek defaults to a shitty sample rate and it makes a lot of people think the soundchip is no good

 

[AdamK47]

Yeah, that's one of the first things I did after installing the drivers.

 

[General Kenobi]

I don't think that Realtek is up to the task they've been assigned with those high end mobos, but they won't say no either - that would be bad business. If you keep your music in a lossless format and have a decent set of headphones or speakers, Realtek will never cut it.

 

[magomago]

high end enthusiasts really don't care about audio quality as long as "it sounds good". If they did, mobo manufacturers would be touting it the way they pimp voltage regulators on their motherboards.
actually its kind of sad.... cpu voltage regulators gets more attention than audio quality LOL

...for those you care...you have XFi

 

[Rifter]

I agree. I also own a Xonar STX and compared to realtek its night and day. However i have a real set of speakers, with any sub $100 computer speaker setup your soundcard choice is not going to matter.

 

[BrightCandle]

Its all about cost. For those that know and care they already have a decent sound card and speakers/headphones and hence don't care about the onboard solution. Those that don't will get a "high end" Realtek chip which is better than the piece of junk they shipped on last years motherboard.

No everyone has the money to be an audiophile. Its not really worth getting anything other than Realtek unless you have the headphones/speakers to show it up. Why bother putting expensive options on when you data says that 80% of your users are using $20 headsets from Sony.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Agreed, there is a reason I own an Asus Essence STX and Sennheiser HD 650s.

What headphones do you have AdamK47?

 

[AdamK47]

Shure SRH840

 

[cantholdanymore]

K47, your thread hits me close to home.
I just bought a Sennheiser HD380 to go with my mobo using the realtek 889 (asus maximus iv gene-z if you care). And the question that's killing me is if it is worth it to expend extra $200 in a xonar card. I don't game and most of my listening is with headphones. The reviews out there all agree that the xonar STX outpaces the integrated audio by a mile, but those guys test this card with headphones costing more than double than the HD380. Just wondering if the HD380 are worth a xonar

 

[Modelworks]

if you are using optical out then it doesn't matter what chip you are using.

 

[cantholdanymore]

Back in topic, no anytime soon:

HD6990:http://benchmarkreviews.com/images/...lles/AMD-Radeon-HD-6990-Exposed-PCB-Large.jpg
xonar essence: http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/Robscix/Exclusives/Essence/nosheildsml.jpg

Audio cards use lots more discrete components.

 

[General Kenobi]

Personally I've been happy with Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer as my sound card, but then again, I'm a gamer first and music aficionado second. I've got a pair of Sennheiser HD555 headphones. (Note: I'm using X-Fi Mode Changer, a feature that is not officially supported.)

 

[greenhawk]

high end enthusiasts really don't care about audio quality as long as "it sounds good". If they did, mobo manufacturers would be touting it the way they pimp voltage regulators on their motherboards.

The way I see it is that all boards need a sound card as not everyone cares that much about having the best. Besides, as no one agrees what is the best, the motherboard manufactures (high end) proberly think that if you are paying soo much for a high end system, you can afford to get which ever sound card you want and add it in, so a cheap onboard sound controller just gets disabled. No point spending big on it in that case (from the manufacture's point of view).

On a side note, While the realtek is a crappy sound chip, it is miles better than most cheap ones personally so on the up side, it sets a reasonable/good lower level so addon cards have to be better. If realtek did not improve from the early years then I can understand were people are comming from bagging it out.