Question regarding audio ports

[skillachio]

I have a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H mobo, and I have accidentally broken the lime green audio port at the back of my computer by hitting the wire leading in to it and bending it, consequently damaging the port. The VIA HD Audio Deck allows me to change the function of the different ports at the back of the mobo. Do these other ports provide a different quality of audio when used as the main input than that of the green? Or can I expect the exact same standard of sound?

 

[Cristi72]

Hello,

In a perfect world, rerouting the signal from one plug to another should not lead to signal degradation; unfortunately, this is a situation I also experienced and I can say that in my case it was quite a difference on the negative side regarding the level and the dynamic response (it was a Realtek codec though...).

Front speaker outputs (stereo output, L + R), the broken plug in your case, are given the best quality and the audio levels are higher; that output stage can drive also a pair of headphones, so it can work with lower impedances and is less sensible to low quality cables.

On the other hand, unless you don't have some state-of-the-art high-end ultra HI-FI audio amplifier line, I think you will not observe notable differences regarding the quality of sound, maybe some lower audio levels. The sole concern from my point of view may be the existence of a short-circuit of some sort inside that plug...

 

[skillachio]

Is there more than one audio port, other than the green one, that should provide the same quality of audio? Or is that the only one?

 

[Cristi72]

Yes, you have an audio port which have better audio quality than the audio jacks, and that is the S/PDIF optical output (that black square-shaped plug below the black plug). The problem is that you need an amplifier/audio converter which can decode digital signals, as that port can send information in every configuration possible, starting to 2.0 (stereo) all the way to 7.1.

Back to the quality problem: according to mobo's specifications, you should have the VIA VT2021 codec; by looking at the datasheet, all outputs are of the same theoretical quality. Now, the question is if Gigabyte has done some modifications of the outputs; please check the manual from your suppport DVD for detailed specs of the audio.

On the other way, as I was saying in the other post, there is a possibility that you don't have a top-of-the-line amplifier, so you will not hear a difference anyway. When I had the same problem, I was able to tell the difference solely because of a good amplifier (Cambridge Audio) and a pair of decent speakers (full range home-made). On my PC speaker system (Altec Lansing), I was not able to tell the difference in quality between front/rear/sides/C+S outputs...