Gigabyte FI32U audio features, ESS SABRE DAC

SeanTek

n00b
Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Messages
21
I recently got a Gigabyte FI32U and am pleased with it for the price point.

Gigabyte advertises "ESS SABRE DAC" for the audio chip inside the monitor. However, I am trying to get as much information on the monitor's audio capabilities as possible, so I can decide if I should augment it with another audio-out solution or work with what it comes with. Does anyone know this information?

What I have found so far is:
There are three 3.5mm jacks on the back of the monitor. Two are accessible by USB only (output = green, microphone input = pink), while the third one (black) is accessible by HDMI/DisplayPort audio only. The black one has a shiny red light coming out of it which means that it supports TOSLINK optical audio as well as analog!

The USB one has an output that appears as "ESS SABRE HiFi USB Audio Device" with options ranging up to 32-bit, 384kHz in Windows Sound settings. It has the following device information:
USB\VID_0414&PID_A00C&REV_003&MI_00
USB Audio 2.0

The USB one also has an input that appears as "Realtek USB2.0 Audio" for the microphone input. The only option for input resolution is 16-bit, 44.1kHz. The device information is:
USB\VID_0414&PID_A008&REV_0005&MI_00
ks.inf
wdmaudio.inf
wdma_usb.inf:USB\Class_01,USBAudio

Finally, the HDMI/DisplayPort connection appears as follows, when connected to an AMD Radeon 6700 XT running the latest AMD Adrenalin software on Windows 11:
AMD High Definition Audio Device
Advanced Micro Devices
Supported Formats
Max Number of Channels: 2
HDCP: Supported
Bit Depths: 16-bit, 20-bit, 24-bit
Sample Rates: 32.0 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48.0 kHz

I have been able to output 24-bit, 48.0kHz to the black (line out/HDMI/DisplayPort) headphone jack, both in stereo analog, and in TOSLINK optical to compatible speakers with optical input.

At this point, I cannot tell if the black line out supports greater than 24-bit, 48.0 kHz and if it is an AMD driver issue or a limitation of the display. It would also be nice to find out what DACs and amps are being used on the line out. I have not tried doing any bitstream (dolby digital/dts) output to it yet. When I originally set up the monitor, I connected over HDMI and could hear audio fine. However, when I connected over DisplayPort using Windows' default drivers, DisplayPort audio out did not cause any sound to be heard (although the monitor was listed as being an audio output). Once I added AMD Adrenalin software and drivers, DisplayPort audio out behaves exactly like HDMI audio out.

I have attached the green out (ESS SABRE one) to the EPOS/Sennheiser PC38X headset, and it sounds great.

Hope this helps and hope we can dig deeper into what this monitor is capable of.
 
Only the 3.5mm output support the DAC up to 600 ohm. You also need the USB attached for input digital signal.
 
Only the 3.5mm output support the DAC up to 600 ohm. You also need the USB attached for input digital signal.
Okay, but "600 ohm" is for headphone support. And they are all 3.5mm outputs. What are the specific specs on the green one? On the black one?
 
Okay, but "600 ohm" is for headphone support. And they are all 3.5mm outputs. What are the specific specs on the green one? On the black one?
It's up to 600 ohm. You need the headphone with a 3.5mm jack attached to the green one to enable ES9118. Other ports don't have DAC.
 
It's up to 600 ohm. You need the headphone with a 3.5mm jack attached to the green one to enable ES9118. Other ports don't have DAC.
Thank you.

Where is the ES9118 usage documented in the FI32U documentation, if anywhere? Or you just know that?

What other chips are being used?
 
It wasn't documented. It is how DAC works as the green one is the output that boosts audio signals while the black one has the unboosted line-level signal in case you need to another DAC or another mixer. ES9118 is in their motherboards. It matches the specs.
 
It wasn't documented. It is how DAC works as the green one is the output that boosts audio signals while the black one has the unboosted line-level signal in case you need to another DAC or another mixer. ES9118 is in their motherboards. It matches the specs.
Okay. So it's a guess, but probably a reasonable guess. Thanks.

Any ideas on why the HDMI/DisplayPort out is limited to 24-bit 48kHz?
 
Any ideas on why the HDMI/DisplayPort out is limited to 24-bit 48kHz?
A lot of professional music production devices are 24-bit 48 KHz because that's plenty for audio while having less demands for processing. Higher sample rates are mainly useful for less latency but that's off no concern for endusers of an audio output system. Not to mention if you had the level of output system where it would be even possible to hear any difference, you would not be trying to get audio out of a monitor.

So maybe they decided that was a good compromise for bandwidth and processing over HDMI/DP?
 
Okay. So it's a guess, but probably a reasonable guess. Thanks.

Any ideas on why the HDMI/DisplayPort out is limited to 24-bit 48kHz?
It's never a guess. It's exactly the same old chip used since 2016.

Gigabyte cheap out all the audio solution as they've been use the same chip on both the motherboards and the monitors or they would've proudly presented the details and you won't realize you just buy a duplicate chip for nothing.

Other audio output from HDMI/Displayport is from GPU driver as GPU can do audio as well.
 
I'm sure their audio solution is fine for 95% of people including 90% of people who say they care about audio.
If you don't like it, there are several ways to get full-fat digital audio out from your PC - like an HDMI audio extractor or a USB optical/coax out (which is what I use)
Even with a really nice system, it can be really hard to hear the difference of 48k vs 95 or 192. I use 192 because I can and in case I need to talk about it on [H] but I doubt I'd notice if you switched it to 48k. Well, I doubt you would notice but I would totally notice.
 
Back
Top