B00nie
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2012
- Messages
- 9,327
Many onboard sound implementations use galvanic isolation and well known chips in them, they're not the crap they used to be. The speakers are typically the weakest link. If someone is using some plastic soap cup size multimedia speakers, a dac is their least concern. Once you get to the level of, say, Genelec G three or G four, then you might begin to be built-in audio limited.You should be fine as the ESS9018Q2C is a decent chip. My dislike for onboard DAC is just a carryover from the old days where noise isolation was a pretty low priority but the newer high end mobo should be fine. I just prefer to take the digital signal and decode it outside the case but that's just a personal preference.