Dell XPS 8930 RealTek HD Audio Interface Review

[Degru]

What does dashboard/SINAD look like below clipping level? As bad as it is, seems a little unfair to put it on the ranking when you know it's clipping

 

[amirm]

What does dashboard/SINAD look like below clipping level? As bad as it is, seems a little unfair to put it on the ranking when you know it's clipping

It would be similar to the IMD vs level graph.

 

[majingotan]

I wonder how good the realtek chips on the custom BYO PC compared to this one as those MOBOs advertise shielding and on their audio path stage. I don't really like that they only advertise SNR with a RMAA software rather than an actual analyzer.

 

[ZolaIII]

Correct.

No one (95-99%) of buying public don’t care. Why should OEMs waste more than 10c on inbuilt sound.

You have to remember the heritage of the PC with the PC Speaker (honker). And yes, you have the IBM and Microsoft alliance to thank for that.

It ain’t no Commodore or Amstrad...

The old days... C64 whose so unfinished that it whose fun poking around, CPC 4128 whose so polished that it whose the first PC with an OS & ecosystem (CP/M). Amiga brought revolution especially regarding audio... Good old days. Some went to history, some sold the brand name and some went back to audio like Mackintosh. I remember I bought Comodore PC speakers in mid 90 and those ware beterr that any from Logitech or Creative for a PC speakers of course.

 

[Tks]

I wonder how good the realtek chips on the custom BYO PC compared to this one as those MOBOs advertise shielding and on their audio path stage. I don't really like that they only advertise SNR with a RMAA software rather than an actual analyzer.

Asus usually took audio a bit more serious than others at first. Those chips are pretty good. Good enough as long as you're not running a ultra-high powered PC setup that turns into EMI nightmare of an ordeal.

 

[Shadrach]

When I first read this review I though amirm was having a bit of a joke were he wrote he couldn't find what Realtek issue was on his computer.
Then came the revelation McAfee was messing up his emails.
This is the sort of stuff I expect to read from a beginner on a computer forum, not from someone who led a Microsoft team.
I'm having a confidence crisis here.
This may help with your security problems amirm.
https://allthings.how/use-windows-sandbox/
You could also learn how to close the computer ports.
Maybe even better, put the Dell in the rubbish bin and build a decent machine and use a Linux distribution.

 

[bravomail]

Thx for review, Amir! I heard many bad things about Dell cutting corners. They have non-standard cases, non-standard PSUs, and other things, and even some obscure motherboard formats. If there can be one less screw in assembly - Dell will make sure there will be two less screws. I always wondered how they still stay in this business of pushing white (now black) boxes. PC assembly is not hard (screwdriver only needed), and you can get much better quality components. Windows license is one thing which homemade PCs don't get any discount. Luckily, Linux to rescue.
As long as there USB-C port in front panel - Apple USB-C audio adapter will save the day!

 

[Veri]

Maybe even better, put the Dell in the rubbish bin and build a decent machine and use a Linux distribution.

He is ex-microsoft, I have a feeling he'll keep using MS.. PS let's not go OS-elitist here

 

[bravomail]

When was hi-fi audio ever a concern with the average PC user? Surely anyone who cared would buy an external audio interface? The built-in audio is only there to provide the (mostly pointless?) interface sound effects in any case.

With Dell, are we back to single bit DOS speaker interface? I've seen people create PWM files for it, which were encoded from Beatles songs.

 

[Prince Valiant]

Good hint. Here it is: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0899&SUBSYS_10280859&REV_1000

The only reference I can find is an award at Computex Taiwan from 2010:
"Realtek ALC899 High Fidelity PC Audio Codec Wins 'Best Choice of COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2010 Award'"
https://www.realtek.com/en/about-realtek/milestones-and-awards

Perhaps it's an ALC898? The datasheet for that one has a preliminary release dated during that time and a reference to dID 899. I've pasted the lines in below but I can link directly to the PDF if someone wants to take a look:
"REVISION HISTORY
Revision Release Date Summary
0.10 2010/06/02 Preliminary release.
...
8.1.1. Parameter – Vendor ID (Verb ID=F00h, Parameter ID=00h)
Table 17. Parameter – Vendor ID (Verb ID=F00h, Parameter ID=00h)
Codec Response Format
Bit Description
31:16 Vendor ID=10ECh (Realtek’s PCI vendor ID)
15:0 Device ID=0899h"

 

[noel_fs]

oh no prebuild how could you

 

[Ralf Stocker]

Mature performance, DELL! Now we have a Christmas present for our biggest enemies!

 

[Eirikur]

The setup guide to the DELL XPS 8930 states you have a Realtek ALC3861 chip inside, but the vendor code DEV_0899 identifies it as ALC899 - for which I cannot find any datasheet.

I'll tell you something: that Realtek chip may well be rooted in the 48kHz world, my previous HTPC had a ALC889 inside, using an insidious implicit resampling scheme to get 44100 (see chapter 7.2.5) and a single clock running at 24MHz (chapter 7.1.1) to create all output frequencies.

@amirm Perhaps you could venture a 48kHz test to see if that fares any better?

PS: the delivery scheme for the source data ("providing a low long term frequency drift") as described in 7.2.5:

 

[dc655321]

I'll tell you something: that Realtek chip may well be rooted in the 48kHz world

The ALC3271 in my Dell XPS13 (9380) reports it is 48kHz only:

┌─ [dc@xps]:[~]
└─>  aplay -D hw:0,0 -f cd --dump-hw-params /dev/zero
Playing raw data '/dev/zero' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
HW Params of device "hw:0,0":
--------------------
ACCESS:  MMAP_INTERLEAVED RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT:  S16_LE S32_LE
SUBFORMAT:  STD
SAMPLE_BITS: [16 32]
FRAME_BITS: [32 64]
CHANNELS: 2
RATE: 48000
PERIOD_TIME: (333 170667)
PERIOD_SIZE: [16 8192]
PERIOD_BYTES: [128 65536]
PERIODS: [2 32]
BUFFER_TIME: (666 341334)
BUFFER_SIZE: [32 16384]
BUFFER_BYTES: [128 65536]
TICK_TIME: ALL
--------------------
Warning: rate is not accurate (requested = 44100Hz, got = 48000Hz)
         please, try the plug plugin
^CAborted by signal Interrupt...

 

[Azeia]

He is ex-microsoft, I have a feeling he'll keep using MS.. PS let's not go OS-elitist here

But haven't you heard? Microsoft LOVES Linux now!

 

[vitalii427]

I've googled ALC899 and it seems the chip isn't that bad. The resulting quality is more dependent on implementation.

 

[imagidominc]

The headless panther almost seems too good for it.

 

[nintendoeats]

I always wondered how they still stay in this business of pushing white (now black) boxes. PC assembly is not hard (screwdriver only needed), and you can get much better quality components.

The answer is businesses. They can have have 100 built PCs brought to them tomorrow, (not after they have spent dozens of man-hours assembling them and installing an OS). If something goes wrong, they contact Dell (not component manufacturer #996). When they want new machines, they call up their local rep and just say "more of those please. Oh, and please chuck in some monitors".

Dell cares about business a lot more than it cares about consumer. As evidence, let me tell you about when I had to get a replacement for one of my monitors. I spent about 10 minutes trying to make the person on the phone understand the problem. Out of impatience, she shipped me off to the returns department. For 60 seconds, I was in contact with somebody who immediately understood the problem and was prepared to solve it. Unfortunately I had accidentally been forwarded to the enterprise center. With regret, he sent me back to pleb-land where I had to spend ANOTHER 10 minutes explaining the problem to somebody else who clearly couldn't tell ethernet from USB.

/rant

 

[NTomokawa]

I wonder how good the realtek chips on the custom BYO PC compared to this one as those MOBOs advertise shielding and on their audio path stage. I don't really like that they only advertise SNR with a RMAA software rather than an actual analyzer.

Don't overpay for an "audiophile" motherboard. Buy an outboard USB DAC instead. This site has uncovered (and covered) quite a few inexpensive - or dare I say cheap - yet very high-performing USB DACs.

 

[NTomokawa]

The resulting quality is more dependent on implementation.

Ain't that the G-darned truth. Notice how this machine butchers not one, but two ESS9038PRO chips!