Hi. I purchased a asus H170I-PRO motherboard for £159, was hoping that since it was quite expensive it would have good quality components and good av performance for use as a htpc.
Turned out to be not so good, picture is okay, sound is a little flat and lifeless.
Am looking for any recommendations for motherboards with high quality audio and video cards built in, or is this even possible? What is the best bang for your buck out there.
Or should i get something external, perhaps a usb multichannel dac for the audio. Any recommendations are appreciated. Have a budget of £300, is there any giant killers that have impressed you. Would be prepared to buy second hand if it goes over the budget.
Many thanks
Turned out to be not so good, picture is okay, sound is a little flat and lifeless.
Am looking for any recommendations for motherboards with high quality audio and video cards built in, or is this even possible? What is the best bang for your buck out there.
Or should i get something external, perhaps a usb multichannel dac for the audio. Any recommendations are appreciated. Have a budget of £300, is there any giant killers that have impressed you. Would be prepared to buy second hand if it goes over the budget.
Many thanks
you don't mention how you connect the MB to your (AV-)equipment. When you use an AV-amplifier (or buy one with your budget) I would suggest to connect via HDMI and stream the audio in digital -High resolution- format (depending on the source you use). In general analog audio coming from PC-MBs is not the best due to all sorts of HF-distortion.
Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.
Forgot to mention i have a 5.1 set up so am really looking for a multichannel dac or preamp.
I have 3 quad stereo power amps, so 6 channels of amplification and am using the windows mixer as a volume control.
From searching around it seems a high quality motherboard gives sound quality equivalent to a basic £100 dac. The high quality dacs and preamps all seem to be costing £1000 or above. I dont want to spend that kind of money, about £300 or so, so am wondering if their any bargains to be had at this price point or anything second hand.
Any advice or recommendations are appreciated.
Forgot to mention i have a 5.1 set up so am really looking for a multichannel dac or preamp.
I have 3 quad stereo power amps, so 6 channels of amplification and am using the windows mixer as a volume control.
From searching around it seems a high quality motherboard gives sound quality equivalent to a basic £100 dac. The high quality dacs and preamps all seem to be costing £1000 or above. I dont want to spend that kind of money, about £300 or so, so am wondering if their any bargains to be had at this price point or anything second hand.
Any advice or recommendations are appreciated.
I think spending more money on another motherboard won't solve your audio issues, it maybe worth considering that dolby dts may not be available as a analogue audio out function on the motherboard, it may well be 5.1 audio but is it really dolby dts ?
You may find that dolby dts is only available from the HDMI output. This could be a hardware licensing obligation.
Its worth noting that the motherboard manual and the Realtek ALC887 datasheet don't explicitly state what type of audio is available from the analogue output apart from stating it is HD audio. So swapping motherboards will most likely end up with the same outcome.
You may find that dolby dts is only available from the HDMI output. This could be a hardware licensing obligation.
Its worth noting that the motherboard manual and the Realtek ALC887 datasheet don't explicitly state what type of audio is available from the analogue output apart from stating it is HD audio. So swapping motherboards will most likely end up with the same outcome.
I am using powerdvd as the media player and it decodes the dts hd and dolby truhd to lpcm signals. Was hoping that the realtek chip the mobo uses would convert the lpcm to analogue so perhaps there might not be a licencing issue.
For the behringer dac, this does not have hdmi but it has usb input, can i connect the pc to the behringer via usb, then take the analogue outs from the behringer to the power amp. Is this how it is done? What software will i need.
Any more dac / preamp recommendations please.
Finally i have been offered some old dacs for sale, what is your opinion of the integra dhc80.6 and the marantz av 7005. Are these dinosaurs outdated and a bad investment.
Many thanks
For the behringer dac, this does not have hdmi but it has usb input, can i connect the pc to the behringer via usb, then take the analogue outs from the behringer to the power amp. Is this how it is done? What software will i need.
Any more dac / preamp recommendations please.
Finally i have been offered some old dacs for sale, what is your opinion of the integra dhc80.6 and the marantz av 7005. Are these dinosaurs outdated and a bad investment.
Many thanks
There are numerous audio settings within windows including audio levels, bit rate settings and number of speakers, and then the audio settings within powerdvd itself. Have you installed the realtek HD audio manager ?
You seem to be throwing money at a problem before you have ruled out basic software configurations.
Borrow a home theatre receiver that has hdmi inputs and see if that improves the audio experience, at least that will narrow down to what the issue is.
You seem to be throwing money at a problem before you have ruled out basic software configurations.
Borrow a home theatre receiver that has hdmi inputs and see if that improves the audio experience, at least that will narrow down to what the issue is.
Tascam 208i looks really nice and has DSP capabilities so you might be able to tweak the sound to your liking.
One sold for 181gbp on ebay last month.
It also supports up to 192khz which is in line with Dolby TrueHD and has balanced outputs to help prevent any ground loops or buzzing from the PC.
One sold for 181gbp on ebay last month.
It also supports up to 192khz which is in line with Dolby TrueHD and has balanced outputs to help prevent any ground loops or buzzing from the PC.
Thanks!
My amp has unbalanced rca input only so unfortunatly the tascam and behringer are not suitable.
Any more dac or av preamp recommendations please.
My amp has unbalanced rca input only so unfortunatly the tascam and behringer are not suitable.
Any more dac or av preamp recommendations please.
Converting from balanced to unbalanced is trivial. The other way round is more difficult 🙂
But your MB has several PCI-e slots - there are a few multichannel PCI-e soundcards with regular jack outputs (Xonar D2X, Xonar AE, Audigy RX, etc.).
But your MB has several PCI-e slots - there are a few multichannel PCI-e soundcards with regular jack outputs (Xonar D2X, Xonar AE, Audigy RX, etc.).
So would you go for a soundcard rather than an external dac or av preamp? If so do you have any experinces you would be prepared to share.
Thanks
Thanks
Any opinions at all on the integra dhc-80.6
What are integra like as a company, make good stuff reliable products, or overpriced?
Thanks.
What are integra like as a company, make good stuff reliable products, or overpriced?
Thanks.
I have good experiences with the Asus D2X and Asus Essence STX II 7.1 sound cards.
However Asus stopped making the D2X, the Xonar AE seems to be its replacement, looking at the specs I think it's a good sound card.
The Essence STX II 7.1 doesn't seem to be available anywhere, which might be because Asus stopped making it, however the Asus website still lists it.
However Asus stopped making the D2X, the Xonar AE seems to be its replacement, looking at the specs I think it's a good sound card.
The Essence STX II 7.1 doesn't seem to be available anywhere, which might be because Asus stopped making it, however the Asus website still lists it.