ALC898 - How good is it?

Onboard audio seems to have come a long way, esp with the ALC898 audio codec. Seen some posters in other forums claim the ALC898 sounds better to them than their dedicated sound cards like the X-fi (Xtreme Music and X-fi Platinum Pro). The X-fi card I have was released in 2005 while the ALC898 in 2012. Could technology have caught up with these old sound cards to finally match or better them? EAX is virtually obsolete now unless you still play old games. X-fi's processing chip which takes load cycles off the CPU may have been worthwhile in 2005, but with todays multi-core processors its probably pointless.

I'm considering a board with ALC898 (Asrock Z77 extreme4) and its audio performance, if matching or bettering my X-fi, will greatly influence my buying decision. Any thoughts?

 

Last integrated chip I used was a lower end ALC889 (Z68A-D3) and going from it to Creative CA1032 (Sniper M3) made a big difference.

Looking at RMAA tests ALC898 seems to be pretty good overall.
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/875-14/performances-reseau-dio.html
http://www.behardware.com/articles/...boards-from-asrock-asus-gigabyte-and-msi.html
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1882/14/

 

I dont know...


but why doesnt realtek have it listed on there site.

I would of like to look at the codec specs

 

Here you go http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/datasheets/ALC898_DataSheet_0.60.pdf
And basic spec comparison table http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Audio-Codec-Comparison-Table/520/2

 

it has better noise ratio then my onboard. which is a 889


I listen to things loud sometimes. even with headphones.

and I havent heard a realtek that doesnt have background noise when the volume is high.

my soundblaster has zero background noise when its high.

 

I would keep your X-Fi XM in, Usually when people say that they can't tell the difference between there on-board and their sound card analog quailty. It's because they have sub-par speakers or headphones, Which makes it harder for them to notice the difference. That's why it takes good gear for you notice the sound improvement from the better source.

Now if you have speakers and headphones that you bought from wal mart or dollar general. Then of course you wont notice the sound card outputting better analog quality then your on-board. Because those headphones and speakers wouldn't be up to par to do the justice. Just like using Good headphones with on-board audio analog out wouldn't do them justice either.

Digital is the only output that sounds the same between onboard and sound card if jitter doesn't happen that would sound the same as using digital out from a sound card. Since you would be using either one as a Digital transport device for a external dac/amp or Home audio receiver. Which would just send the signals over to either devices. Then a sound card wouldn't be any point, unless you need the feature's of said card or your on-board audio drivers does not work correctly, which have issues that would stop you from using it with your external device normally *cough VIA*.

A sound card will always be needed when you care about audio,until motherboard makers start getting serious and start using better components for the audio layout. Until then they will always use the cheapest components they can. Only certain motherboard makers do use good components for the audio layout, Like the sniper motherboard that was mentioned. Or when they include a Xonar type sound card in a bundle with the motherboard.

It's always been easy for me to notice when something is off, When ever I have to use onboard audio as a temp. I get annoyed as it doesn't sound right. But now I more into using external dac amp's for my source. Only reason I have a recon3D is because of my VIA on-board having a glitched that VIA never fixed.They think people love having 5% volume on optical outputs with broken volume sliders >_>, yea it effects the analog out which i don't use. Well besides of the Tru studio features that I actually use when I game or watch movies on Xfinity, Of course I don't use those features when I listen to music, Music programs goes right out the spdif output into my Audio-GD NFB-12.0 rev2.

But yea unless your having issues with the X-FI XM, or not having room issues, Then there's no reason not to use your X-FI XM, Unless you was thinking about replacing it with a PCI-E based sound card, To stick in the PCI-E 1x slot.

 

X-Fi Xtreme Music has better DAC. Realtek claims that ALC898 has 110dB SNR which is pretty good for realtek (it's their best codec) but Xtreme Music uses Cirrus Logic CS4382 which is better. Integrated solutions are probably more prone to interference than add in cards.

 

Yes, it has. But add-in sound card's are still much better.

 

Thats what I was thinking too. Onboard sound (even the ALC898) must be missing something if they are able to make it such a low cost as to include in a $130 mobo (Asrock). Not sure if SN ratios, dynamic range numbers are really meaningful in themselves without considering other elements or probably quality of parts on decent sound cards. Anyway, just did an RMAA test of my current card and it seems to be better than the ALC898 (certainly in distortion figures).

Spoiler

vs ALC898:

No issues at all with X-fi XM, just wondering it lastest tech advances in onboard audio had caught up to it. If it has, then it would certainly figure into any motherboard purchase I may make.

 

OK. That clinches it.

 

FYI, simple loop back test means absolutely nothing since it doesn't really test DAC, ADC is almost always much worse on these cards and bottleneck. For ideal results you'd need really high quality hardware with ADC that is better than the DAC in the device that you test.

 

Forget the onboards, leave them for Grandmas windows sounds.
For the beat sounds and features, you need a good soundcard for starters.

 

That table is actually WRONG!!! The Asrock 890GX Extreme 3 does NOT have ALC898 audio, it has VIA® VT2020 audio.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/890GX Extreme3/?cat=Specifications

They didn't mix the board up with the Asrock 990FX Extreme3 either, as that has ALC892 audio.

In the Z77 boards, it's only the 'higher end' boards that have it, the Extreme4 and above, Z77 Professional etc. The Z77 Extreme3 has ALC892 audio, as does other boards of this level or lower (the real low end boards have ALC662 etc, yuck!) probably due to cost.

The ALC898 is probably good enough for standard stuff. If you want better you really need a recent model good sound card (not an old model sound card they happen to still sell).

 

I don't know many older model soundcards still sound better over the latest onboards.
I find onboards sound very cold and sterile, no life to them, any effects are completely overwhelming.

Best advice, get rid of the onboards don't look for good points or make excuses because their are none.

If you want great sound for your games, movies and music, get some good hardware.

Some people seem to just neglect that part of their system but it is very important.
Especially for gaming as game houses spend a great deal of time and money developing the audio aspect of games and to use an onboard and some cheap plastic speakers that came with the keyboard is a shame! What is worse is it doesn't take much to improve your sound quality.
Not to mention how much more enjoyable movies are with great sound.

 

Yes that table is wrong. They seem to have mistakenly posted it from another review, but under it is the chart for ALC898 boards:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1882/14/

 

I actually liked the stereo performance of ALC892 codec on an older board I had, and thought that ALC898 may be even better. But that was only on stereo, 4 channel was terrible and not too configurable with the Realtek software. I still may get an ALC898 board as part of an upgrade so I may soon see first hand how it stacks up vs my X-fi. Although by what I've heard here, it looks like I'll be hanging on to my sound card for a while.

 

Would have disagreed a few months ago but my ears have been opened! Hallelujah!

I will never, ever go back to onboard sound.

 

agree with the add in soundcard guys

 

Well sometimes, it is just that people just haven't heard a better option. They think onboard is really good, once they hear a good soundcard they want the better sound quality.

 

Dude, my mobo has ALC892 and it is pure garbage, absolute junk. It was pain to use that while waiting for forte drivers. The difference is night and day unless you happen to have 5 € headset.