"Audiophile" motherboards

[Sokel]

I'd just go for a mothboard with built in Toslink. Complete isolation of PC from Audio. It doesn't get better than that.

Agreed again,but most of todays dac strength is on the USB side.

 

[Apesbrain]

My favorite "audiophile" motherboard:

 

[DonR]

High speed ones?Example?

The cheaper ones are limited to 12mbps, yes. That would be a drawback. I don't like the idea of locking yourself into a particular motherboard though just for some esoteric feature. Motherboards obsolete themselves faster than things like USB isolators.

 

[Sokel]

My favorite "audiophile" motherboard:

Without an R-Core transformer and a forest of caps is a no-go,I'm sorry

 

[antcollinet]

Agreed again,but most of todays dac strength is on the USB side.

Only if you subscribe to the fallacy that higher bitrates than Toslink can provide make an audible difference (Multichannel audio excepted)

 

[Sokel]

The cheaper ones are limited to 12mbps, yes. That would be a drawback. I don't like the idea of locking yourself into a particular motherboard though just for some esoteric feature. Motherboards obsolete themselves faster than things like USB isolators.

The one I use now (and made the measurement with) is 10 years old.
I'll be more than happy if the new one last half of it,I'm bored waiting for it to break!

 

[DonR]

Only if you subscribe to the fallacy that higher bitrates than Toslink can provide make an audible difference (Multichannel audio excepted)

On a related tangent, it would be interesting to see some jitter specs from motherboard toslink connections.

 

[ZolaIII]

30-400 euro (depends what isolator you choose) in your pocket if it works?Motherboards feature is practically free.

Nothing is free with possible exception of lies. Gaming industry is possible only one with more snake oil in it than audio as there is much more money in play there.

 

[Sokel]

Only if you subscribe to the fallacy that higher bitrates than Toslink can provide make an audible difference (Multichannel audio excepted)

Nope,not at all.
Only the principle since I pay for it,and a good usb implementation is not cheap,gets a good bite of the whole price.

 

[DonR]

The one I use now (and made the measurement with) is 10 years old.
I'll be more than happy if the new one last half of it,I'm bored waiting for it to break!

That is fine if it is for single-purpose use but if your PC is being asked to do multiple tasks, a 10-year-old product might not cut it. Having said that, my motherboard is 9 years old and working fine, though I use Toslink to my $13 DAC.

 

[Sokel]

That is fine if it is for single-purpose use but if your PC is being asked to do multiple tasks, a 10-year-old product might not cut it. Having said that, my motherboard is 9 years old and working fine, though I use Toslink to my $13 DAC.

I'm trying to steal my wife's fancy Mac to make some measurements but I probably have to put her in complete anesthesia to do it,uses it for her work
Yes,it's only propose is (will be) music so nothing exaggerated,no hi-end GPU's (a decent one only) ,just a good CPU and lots of memory so I can also measure stuff with ease except of playing music.

 

[DonR]

I'm trying to steal my wife's fancy Mac to make some measurements but I probably have to put her in complete anesthesia to do it,uses it for her work
Yes,it's only propose is (will be) music so nothing exaggerated,no hi-end GPU's (a decent one only) ,just a good CPU and lots of memory so I can also measure stuff with ease except of playing music.

That is what I use my 2010 Mac mini for. It plays music on my AVR (and video) via HDMI. No ground loop issues though. Definitely not an "audiophile" setup but good enough for (late) middle-aged ears.

 

[ZolaIII]

Agreed again,but most of todays dac strength is on the USB side.

Most of it's weakness is on it and you of course don't get almost nothing from it. From bad bridge chips to not good implemented one's to various problems caused by bad software and it's complexity. I actually find it funny how no one did even bother to implement USB Audio 3.0 up to today even it whose finalised years ago but they are so egger to get more $ from you with empty phrases. While now decades old optical standards (that do have their downsides regarding bandwidth limitations being so old) simply work.

 

[Sokel]

No ground loop issues though.

Neither for me (at least aubible as you can see in the measurement and the gazillion ones I upload in the Multitone thread) but with all these threads poping out nearly every week reporting issues I would like a solid solution.

 

[GXAlan]

We'd need to know the reason for the SNR reduction, before that can be evidence of benefit for audiophile motherboard. To start with, the performance is already near 20db worse than measured by Amir - so what else in the system is generating noise? EG ground loop, which MB design is unlikely to help with.

I am not saying there is a benefit for an audiophile motherboard but that bad recording gear is able to measure differences in power for a “performant DAC” like the Topping D50s.

The recorder was the KORG DS-DAC-10R which has advertised specs of

S/N 105dB (TYP.) 20 Hz –20 kHz, IHF-A
THD+N 0.005% (TYP.) 20 Hz – 20 kHz

It was attached to the same HP laptop. In one example I ran the Topping D50s power off the USB port of the laptop and in the other, I used a Sony cellphone charger AC adapter. The data for the D50s was still the same HP laptop.

The Korg is fully USB powered from a single cable, not super high end. Loopback of the DS-DAC-10R to itself gets you this.

 

[Sokel]

Ok,I did some measurements keeping everything identical and only changing PSU on Khadas.
The differences are huge,the SINAD ranged from 81 to 104.
The worst is with an old phone charger followed but the PC powered.
The best was with and A class (adjustuble) phono PSU and with Salas and no ground to PC (fooled with the old led trick).
So...
I think someone has to measure motherboards or at least motherboards with the same dac as a constant stable or something that could reveal what the f*** is going on with them.

 

[phrwn]

I've gone back to direct motherboard audio since getting an MSI Z690i a few months ago (scroll down for the audio marketing babble). I sold my Element II; one less thing to plug in and clutter my desk.

I'm at the point where I only care about perceptible qualities. If the motherboard can easily power the headphones with no background noise what's the point of having a secondary device? I have the volume at 14/100 right now with E-Mu Teaks. Yesterday I tried DT1990's and they needed about 20-22.

 

[Palladium]

In an era of cheap external performant DACs which can also be migrated across devices, purchasing a motherboard solely based on their onboard audio performance is just so superfluous.

 

[phrwn]

In an era of cheap external performant DACs which can also be migrated across devices, purchasing a motherboard solely based on their onboard audio performance is just so superfluous.

Oh definitely. Pointless to do it that way without measurements too. In my case I was building a new computer so it was just a bonus.

 

[DJNX]

One thing where all PC motherboards fail, even the Apple ones, is low output impedance for IEMs.
I always get lots of hiss.
I wonder if the new Mac Studio which promises "3.5 mm headphone jack with advanced support for high-impedance headphones" is any better.