ASRock Also Boasts High-End Onboard Audio

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

It appears that ASRock is also working on motherboards with better onboard audio.

Earlier, Gigabyte was teasing us that it would carry much better onboard audio thanks to Creative's Sound Core 3D chip, but it appears that Gigabyte is not the only manufacturer that wants to improve onboard audio to differentiate its products from the rest of the market. ASRock is introducing its A-Style Purity sound.

The A-Style Purity sound would be built using a Realtek ALC1150 codec in conjunction with two TI NE5532 amplifiers. One of the two would work as a differential amplifier, while the other is a headphone amplifier that can support headphones that have an impedance of up to 600 Ohms. The Realtek ALC1150 codec is covered by an EMI shield, and the part of the PCB where the audio hardware is located is isolated to prevent interference.

A-Style Purity sound will feature signal-to-noise ratio of 115 dB, 7.1 channel HD audio, DTS connect and more.

Stay tuned, for all we know there will be even more manufacturers releasing motherboards with higher-end onboard audio.

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • runswindows95
    It's reasons like this is why sound cards are becoming like ethernet cards for a lot of people: Really don't need or want to install one till the onboard fails.
    Reply
  • TheBigTroll
    first of all, its gigabyte not gygabyte. and as for asrock, realtek is no where near what aftermarket codecs can offer
    Reply
  • vmem
    @TheBigTroll
    Though you're right that aftermarket codecs offer far more and better quality sound, it all comes at a price. fact of the matter is, onboard audio have become (like PCs made in the last 3-4 years) good enough for most people to have no-incentive to spend big bucks to upgrade.
    Reply
  • halcyon
    It is unquestionably appropriate, as well as awesome, that mobo manufacturers are realizing that there are audiophiles among us enthusiasts. More options is not a bad thing.
    Reply
  • bgunner
    About time manufactures figured out the world needs to hear the sound the way it was meant to be. I have run a dedicated audio card for years and would of never considered on-board audio as a solution till Gigabyte started with the 3d recon on its super high end boards a generation ago. Now when, and if they keep this as an option, I build another system I may do on board audio.
    Reply
  • drwho1
    I might never use on board audio.
    Still this is good news, about time on board audio got some attention.
    Reply
  • DarkSable
    I support that they're trying, but they've got two problems:
    1) This really isn't that much of an upgrade from normal onboard sound.
    2) It's not going to find it's way onto mATX and mini-ITX boards where it would actually be a selling point.
    Reply
  • bgunner
    10769473 said:
    I support that they're trying, but they've got two problems:
    1) This really isn't that much of an upgrade from normal onboard sound.
    2) It's not going to find it's way onto mATX and mini-ITX boards where it would actually be a selling point.

    AsRock Is known for being low cost. I totally agree with every thing you have said but I just want to say that AsRock's major selling point is price. If they make it too good and add super high quality audio then they lose what edge they have which is cost for us budget challenged builders.
    Reply
  • DarkSable
    ^ Yes and no.

    You're certainly correct that one of their selling points is cost, but having good audio on their high end boards and their specialty boards could be a very good thing.
    Reply
  • nevilence
    Options are optional, but for commoners like me, standard on board audio is enough, especially when I would rather spend money on SSDs or a better graphics card.
    Reply