i looked for this answer SO LONG and the frustration of NOT having an answer got me buying one of the best ALC1150 implementations: Z170X GAMING G1. I then compared this to my LOVED X-Fi Titanium and THIS IS the truth about ALC1150: without the X-fi MB3 suite bundled with Gigabyte, the Realtek driver by itself SUCKS quite a lot, it's totally retarded, 5, 6 options to configure, that's it...and audio quality is pretty flat even equalizing it. I then installed the X-Fi MB3 (audio driver that gets over the realtek one) and things changed a bit, more settings, something better, and somewhat better audio quality.....but the comparison with the dedicated Titanium IS AWFUL and ALC1150 emerges and total bullmarketshit that people is selling as "excellent" on rightmark. This is one of the biggest SCAMS i've ever experienced. There are also switches on the motherboard to amplify even more this "result". Yes the audio quality MIGHT be mistaken for "good" for average people. But c'mon, this is not even near a cheap-ass dedicated. I'm sorry i've been kinda rude but truth needs to come out eventually and many people have the same question i had for YEARS. Now i finally have the answer. Don't even bother with integrated audio, go straight for dedicated, you'll understand.
Edit some days after of testing:
i tried to push out the best every solution had to offer and i want to refine my reply adding an ALC892 basic config against those two (so ALC892 vs ALC1150 X-Fi MB3 vs X-fi Titanium dedicated).
The 1150 is clearly the winner against the 892, more definition, more basses and the Creative MB3 panel makes everything shine against the basic realtek configuration. So if you really want integrated audio only consider partners that support this Creative panel (otherwise you'll have to pay for this extra if i got it right). Then i tried again 1150 vs Titanium and at the beginning it was a hard match but i quickly figured out that i was testing with too poorly defined music and i wasn't pushing enough to test. So i can surely say that "sometimes" they sound the same (Sennheiser 595 here) but....when they don't....it's a world of a difference. The 1150 completely struggles when it comes to bass definition (not quantity, it's the quality). It's like listening to a really loud garbage, with any clarity to it, and that's where the Titanium really shows itself making your mind blow.
I then gave the 1150 another chance and switched to 6x the motherboard switch to enable the highest amplification, what they call "amp up". Sadly things didn't change, i had the same garbage, only amplified six times.
Things don't get wrong only on low frequencies, also high ones are really affected when there's "a lot going on". Weird enough for rightmark this should be "Excellent" quality. Something must be fussed up here.
Don't get me wrong, most people won't even notice any difference from a dedicated to this 1150 implementation, maybe you, reading this right now, are one of these people. But since you asked yourself to look for my answer (which i will define THE correct answer to this question), do yourself a favour, buy a dedicated soundcard, even a used one will blow away every integrated solution.
My only regret now is spending 40 euros more aiming for one of the best integrated audio solutions...just out of curiosity.