Well here it is, my last word(for now) on computer driven hifi. I was trying to figure out whether or not I could hear the difference between on-board/out-board and stand-alone DACs. I'm running an ASUS Zonar Essence STX, Realtek ALC 889 and 892 codecs and an ASUS Zonar Essence One. I down loaded several HiRez songs from HD tracks. This time instead of listening to the same 'ol stuff I thought I'd try a different tact....songs I'd never heard before and compare each unit and try to find one of the bunch that resolved things the others didn't.
The Rig:
LucasLabs CF14 Line Stage
CarverFest 2011 (heavily modded amp)
Velodyne CHT10 Subwoofer (modded with a JLAudio 10" W3)
Alesis Monitor Ones(modded crossover)
CarverAudio and Mark Tunis Silver ICS
Audio Note AN-9 Silver Loudspeaker wires
I recently built a new PC for Hi-Fi listening (and some movie watching) at home. I did some research and decided upon the AMD 990 chipset. A trip to MicroCenter in Columbus, Ohio scored me the parts I needed to complete the PC build. I'm running an AMD 9590 BE processor, Gigabyte 990FA-UD5 board, Corsair H100 closed loop cooling solution, 2 ASUS R9 290 video cards crossfired, 32gbs Corsair Vengence 2400 DDR3 ram, 2 ASUS SuperMulti BD players, and the ASUS Zonar STX sound card in an NZXT Phantom case. It's a really cool rig.
The Gigabyte board has the Realtek ALC889 chipset which is widely considered to be the top o the heap as far as on board DACs go. My previous PC rig(AMD 890 chipset/Biostar TA890FXE/AMD 1090t processor/16gb 1333gb ram /2 crossfired AMD 6850s) sports the Realtek ALC892 chipset, which sounds pretty good also.
The ASUS Zonar Essence One is a stand alone DAC with alot going for it. First, it's f**king beautiful. Sorta fits in with the EAR V20/Fosgate Signature. Lots of power for headphones and can run in a balanced mode up to 192k/24 bit and like the ALC889 it claims to run 176.4k/24 bit audio.
I tried all kinds of settings, on all of the units and wanted this to be a fair fight, but the best I have been able to manage to this point is 96k/24bit resolution on all of the units when testing. Be that as it may, they all sounded pretty good. One thing I did notice when reading up one several of the units I planned on listening to was how important level matching reflected the outcome.
First up was 'Postcard from Paradise' from Ringo Starr. Ringo, like Troy Polamalu has lost a step, but he IS still Ringo! Sounds like he did a while ago. I bought this download because I wanted to hear differences articulated accurately in the mid to lower registers. At first blush all of the DACs performed well, until I listened a little longer and closer. The ALC892 was a little inarticulate in the lower end. All of the other units sounded the same....to me. Further listening with my girls involved netted the same result, they heard the things I heard.
Next was Boz Scaggs' "A Fool to Care". Here I wanted to hear the subtle nuances of his voice. All of the DACs came through keeping his voice intact. I was really impressed with the imaging and soundstage presented on this recording. Makes me want to find it on vinyl.
Try as I might, up to this point I can't hear the difference in any of these products. Now the ASUS Essence One and the ASUS Zonar STX are nice products with a heft and feel I like when spending that kind of $$. On the other hand the Realtek ALCs are backed by WAAY more computing power than any CD/DVD player known to man and can buffer any DVD or bluray in their ram, giving the chipsets alot of power backing them up and doing a great job on the oversampling. I just haven't found any difference to my ear to justify spending any of my hard earned money on anything other than the motherboard chipsets.
YMMV!
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