Question How good is motherboard sound? (Asus H97-PRO none gamer motherboard)

[nofacemonster]

I have been going through numerous articles and videos on YouTube, different folks explaining why I should use a DAC to listen to music apart from using the onboard sound.

Well, I thought I should speak with the Tomshwardre folks to see what their thoughts are about. I am currently running my main system which is consist of a pair of "meadowlark speakers" and a Yamaha AX-397 stereo amplifier with a SMSL M100 MK2 DAC. My source is the PC and the DAC is connected externally. I do have an onboard soundcard too, the mother board is Asus H97-PRO (non gamer board) which I believe has the ALC892 to soundchip.

My question is, how good Asus has implemented their soundchips to the board? Are they bad or better than other motherboard makers?. Soon I might have to remove my DAC and run the system with just onboard sound because the DAC belongs elsewhere.

What I Do is, listen to music, and watch movies, Youtube videos etc. I play all my favorite albums on lossless digitally. (CD quality 44.1 / 16 bit nearly 90% of the time). Will ALC892 can do the justice to my old connected sound system or I seriously should buy another DAC to it?.

 

[Lutfij]

TheALC892 is an audio chip used on boards that are entry level(or bottom of the barrel at the very least), since you are coming from a DAC, what you'll hear is a downgrade in audio quality.

how good Asus has implemented their soundchips to the board? Are they bad or better than other motherboard makers?. Soon I might have to remove my DAC and run the system with just onboard sound because the DAC belongs elsewhere.
For a decade old motherboard's audio, it was good back then, not today.

The chip used on your DAC is the ESS Sabre 9018Q2C;

SMSL M100 MKII Review

The SMSL M100 MKII is a second-generation entry-level desktop DAC with an ES9018Q2C chipset supporting up to PCM768k/DSD512. It is priced at $93.99 Disclaimer: The SMSL M100 MKII sent to us for this review is

headfonics.com

 

[nofacemonster]

TheALC892 is an audio chip used on boards that are entry level(or bottom of the barrel at the very least), since you are coming from a DAC, what you'll hear is a downgrade in audio quality.

how good Asus has implemented their soundchips to the board? Are they bad or better than other motherboard makers?. Soon I might have to remove my DAC and run the system with just onboard sound because the DAC belongs elsewhere.
For a decade old motherboard's audio, it was good back then, not today.

The chip used on your DAC is the ESS Sabre 9018Q2C;

SMSL M100 MKII Review

The SMSL M100 MKII is a second-generation entry-level desktop DAC with an ES9018Q2C chipset supporting up to PCM768k/DSD512. It is priced at $93.99 Disclaimer: The SMSL M100 MKII sent to us for this review is

headfonics.com

I am pretty happy with the SMSL, Its a great sounding dac.

 

[nofacemonster]

TheALC892 is an audio chip used on boards that are entry level(or bottom of the barrel at the very least), since you are coming from a DAC, what you'll hear is a downgrade in audio quality.

how good Asus has implemented their soundchips to the board? Are they bad or better than other motherboard makers?. Soon I might have to remove my DAC and run the system with just onboard sound because the DAC belongs elsewhere.
For a decade old motherboard's audio, it was good back then, not today.

The chip used on your DAC is the ESS Sabre 9018Q2C;

SMSL M100 MKII Review

The SMSL M100 MKII is a second-generation entry-level desktop DAC with an ES9018Q2C chipset supporting up to PCM768k/DSD512. It is priced at $93.99 Disclaimer: The SMSL M100 MKII sent to us for this review is

headfonics.com

I know this may be a stupid question but will there be a difference between my onboard sound and one of those super cheap external DACs up for sale in aliexpress?

 

[dwd999]

It would depend on how you're connecting all of this equipment. My personal opinion/preference is that the best quality comes from the spdif Toslink digital output on a motherboard connected by optical cable to the receiver's spdif input. Since I don't see any optical connectors on any of your equipment I'm going to say that whatever you're doing doesn't matter. Unless your computer has an optical or coaxial digital output that you haven't mentioned your computer has already converted to analog outputs so I'm not sure what benefit there would be to an external DAC. And I don't see any optical or coaxial digital inputs on your receiver.

Also, philosophically, this really only matters for your CD material. For movies, youtube, etc. and anything arriving over the internet the sound has already been processed and sometimes overprocessed/compressed to the point that the playback equipment doesn't matter. But that's just my opinion.

 

[Zerk2012]

super cheap external DACs up for sale in aliexpress

Those are probably scams like a lot of things on that site.