Motherboard audio codecs - please recommend

[Peat Moss]

So I'm looking at various mobos and part of my decision will be based on the audio codec. Would like to get the best onboard sound quality without going to an external DAC (which I might get later). I'm not up on the latest codecs and could use help determining which is better.

- Realtek ALC 897 (Asus ProArt B650 Creator)
- ALC 4082 (AsRock B650 taichi. This board also has a ESS SABRE9218 DAC for Front Panel Audio)
- Realtek ALC 4080 (Asus ROG Strix B650-A Gaming)

 

[Sycraft]

The codec itself doesn't matter as much as the implementation on board, meaning proper analog components, shielding, etc. You can have the world's best DAC chip and the pair it with a bad analog implementation and get noisy sound, or you can take a fairly run of the mill one and implement it right and things will be pretty good. For headphones in particular having an amp that can give your phones what they need, but what phones need varies on the particular headphone.

That said on paper the 4080 is better than the 897, but that is specs in a vacuum, not actual measurements.

 

[michalrz]

^ What Sycraft said.
I have no idea about the respective codecs' driver quality, which honestly might be the only concern.

The Strix one also has integrated Wi-Fi, which, if implemented just badly enough, could actually maybe affect audio.

The middle one has also the front panel "proper" DAC, but similarly, no idea if it's implemented well. It's fun to have 2 audio devices to compare, though.
If you look at the specs of that Sabre chip, it's of course amazing, including 2 volts on the output.
However, pair it with the wrong GPU or PSU and bzzzzzz

 

[Peat Moss]

^ What Sycraft said.
I have no idea about the respective codecs' driver quality, which honestly might be the only concern.

The Strix one also has integrated Wi-Fi, which, if implemented just badly enough, could actually maybe affect audio.

The middle one has also the front panel "proper" DAC, but similarly, no idea if it's implemented well. It's fun to have 2 audio devices to compare, though.
If you look at the specs of that Sabre chip, it's of course amazing, including 2 volts on the output.
However, pair it with the wrong GPU or PSU and bzzzzzzThe AsRock mobo with the sabre DAC

For the AsRock mobo with the Sabre DAC, what would be the "wrong" GPU or PSU to pair it with?

 

[michalrz]

For the AsRock mobo with the Sabre DAC, what would be the "wrong" GPU or PSU to pair it with?

I was alluding to electrical 'noise' issues that like to rear their head in computer audio, especially when the soundcard lives inside the case.

For example, I could hear a faint buzzing noise whenever moving the mouse cursor back when I had a Prodigy 7.1 HiFi soundcard and a specific Gigabyte board.
Now I have a FiiO external DAC, and have to keep the keyboard RGB lights off because they cause a slight whine in the headphones.

Often times a combination of specific GPU/PSU/etc. makes such problems worse, but sadly we won't find these characteristics in reviews.