ASRock Introduces A-Style Purity Sound

btarunr · May 3, 2013

Onboard audio solutions, an essential yet long-overlooked part of computing, especially in this era of rich multimedia contents. In the past, the quality of these onboard audio solutions has been loathed by music lovers, while countless audiophiles mourned over bleeding ears caused by distortion. Woe no more! Everyone can dry their eyes now, because ASRock is here with music to your ears. ASRock's 8 Series motherboards will be packed with a set of various new features with the code name A-Style, which includes Purity Sound, a revolutionary audio solution for people who take audio seriously.

Purity Sound is a combination of several hardware, software audio solutions and technologies that will satisfy even the pickiest audiophiles. Including 7.1 CH HD audio with Realtek ALC1150 audio codec that supports 115dB SNR DAC, and two TI NE5532 amplifiers, one is a Differential Amplifier and the other one is a Premium Headset Amplifier which supports up to 600 ohm headphones. And there's also cap less Direct Drive technology, EMI shielding cover, PCB isolate shielding and support for DTS Connect.

With the new motherboards that support Purity Sound, users may expect more details with less distortion and the industry's highest SNR 115dB. It also provides the exact amount of oomph for bass heads to bounce to the beats, and Premium Headset Amplifier for headphiles to directly connect their high impedance headphones, such as 600 ohm headphones, without needing to buy another expensive audio amplifier or sound card.

When it comes to improving technology, ASRock never turns a blind eye to even the most trivial imperfections. Still not sure about whether audio quality matters? Try A-Style: Purity Sound. You won't have to take our word for it, listen for yourself and hear the difference!

For more product information, please visit this page.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

Jstn7477 · May 3, 2013

Cool, something even better than the ALC 898 that I already "enjoy" as it is (yes, I know I can do better, but it's sufficient for me).

MxPhenom 216 · May 3, 2013

Interesting! Could be good if it has good drivers.

Hood · May 3, 2013

Very nice, Asrock is helping push towards better on board audio, the rest will have to follow or lose market share. Good name for the new codec - ALC1150=115dB SNR - easy to remember. This is another reason to upgrade to socket H3/1150/Haswell (there's that number again!). Anyone want to buy a brand new hardly used at all Ivy Bridge system?

bim27142 · May 3, 2013

This looks (or sounds) promising...

NeoXF · May 3, 2013

Jstn7477 said:
Cool, something even better than the ALC 898 that I already "enjoy" as it is (yes, I know I can do better, but it's sufficient for me).

Just what I was about to say... The ALC 898 was already so much better than most audio add-in cards out there, they looked pathetic... now even more so. Looking forward to this chipset on my S1150/FM3 build.

jagd · May 3, 2013

Interesting ,did you look to headset amplifier ? It says front audio ,i hpe it means front output is as powerful as back headphone output ( generally front panel outputs are weaker than backside outputs to my knowledge ) .
A review when motherboard released will be helpful :toast:

de.das.dude · May 3, 2013

Jstn7477 said:
Cool, something even better than the ALC 898 that I already "enjoy" as it is (yes, I know I can do better, but it's sufficient for me).

alc898 rocks!

omnimodis78 · May 3, 2013

Jstn7477 said:
Cool, something even better than the ALC 898 that I already "enjoy" as it is (yes, I know I can do better, but it's sufficient for me).

That chip is a hit and miss, it would appear. Fantastic onboard sound, when it works... but sadly it's a gamble when you get a board with that chip. A friend's Z77 Extreme4 board came with a bad one. We went as far as contacting ASRock in Taiwan and managed to speak to one of the engineers who told us that they get more complaints about the ALC 898 than any other parts - and so do other manufacturers who use that chip. His problem (as is the case with most other people) is the popping sound. No way around it, we were told, but to send the board back and get a new one. Funny thing is that when the engineer was told about the problem, he let out a long sigh...I knew right away that this is a well-known issue even to the them. So let's hope that this new chip is better as it seems that they focused on more than just paper specs. :toast:

Jstn7477 · May 3, 2013

omnimodis78 said:
That chip is a hit and miss, it would appear. Fantastic onboard sound, when it works... but sadly it's a gamble when you get a board with that chip. A friend's Z77 Extreme4 board came with a bad one. We went as far as contacting ASRock in Taiwan and managed to speak to one of the engineers who told us that they get more complaints about the ALC 898 than any other parts - and so do other manufacturers who use that chip. His problem (as is the case with most other people) is the popping sound. No way around it, we were told, but to send the board back and get a new one. Funny thing is that when the engineer was told about the problem, he let out a long sigh...I knew right away that this is a well-known issue even to the them. So let's hope that this new chip is better as it seems that they focused on more than just paper specs.

Hmm, my Z77 Extreme6 is flawless audio-wise and I haven't had any issues with my Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 or Z77 Pro4-M audio (those are the old ALC 892 though, along with my 2010 laptop).

Aquinus · May 3, 2013

de.das.dude said:
alc898 rocks!

It does pretty well but it doesn't do 24-bit/96Khz FLAC as well as I would like.

TurdFergasun · May 3, 2013

Aquinus said:
It does pretty well but it doesn't do 24-bit/96Khz FLAC as well as I would like.

but it does WASAPI 16bit 44.1/48khz just fine, if you're really picky enough to need more you should be buying a separate soundcard, cause if you're picky enough to need high sample rate you'd think you'd be picking up on motherboard interference/EMI issues as well. You can have the best codec in the world, and in a noisy environment it will be nearly as crappy as a poor one.

Hood · May 4, 2013

Aquinus said:
It does pretty well but it doesn't do 24-bit/96Khz FLAC as well as I would like.

I have ALC892 and it sounds very clean using optical SPDIF (about 2/3 of my music files are 24/96, ~850GB), but the new codec ups the SNR by 20 dB, so that's definitely a tangible increase, but will I notice the difference on my ~$1500 Sony/Boston 5.2 system? Or would it only be noticeable on a high-end system? I listen actively at least a couple hours a day, at fairly high volume, and this sounds like as good a reason as any to upgrade to socket 1150/Haswell.

Aquinus · May 4, 2013

Hood said:
I have ALC892 and it sounds very clean using optical SPDIF (about 2/3 of my music files are 24/96, ~850GB), but the new codec ups the SNR by 20 dB, so that's definitely a tangible increase, but will I notice the difference on my ~$1500 Sony/Boston 5.2 system? Or would it only be noticeable on a high-end system? I listen actively at least a couple hours a day, at fairly high volume, and this sounds like as good a reason as any to upgrade to socket 1150/Haswell.

The problem with your reasoning is that none of this is taken into account for SPDIF. It's unadulterated digital audio. Any losses you will have will be due to the receiver, not the audio card when using optical SPDIF.

TurdFergasun said:
but it does WASAPI 16bit 44.1/48khz just fine, if you're really picky enough to need more you should be buying a separate soundcard, cause if you're picky enough to need high sample rate you'd think you'd be picking up on motherboard interference/EMI issues as well. You can have the best codec in the world, and in a noisy environment it will be nearly as crappy as a poor one.

I haven't because it's already hard enough to get ahold of 96Khz audio, let alone fill my library with it. If I had more high fidelity audio I might consider it but the ALC898 is good enough where you don't notice it all the time. It's just particular kinds of sounds, how they overlap, and how the DAC renders it. It's not a constant thing.

Hood · May 4, 2013

Aquinus said:
The problem with your reasoning is that none of this is taken into account for SPDIF. It's unadulterated digital audio. Any losses you will have will be due to the receiver, not the audio card when using optical SPDIF.

Crap, you're right, now I'll have to find other reasons to justify the upgrade! Oh well, the only reason I need is my desire to play with new hardware - I start feeling the itch as soon as the reviews hit, and by the time it's on the shelves I'm hooked.

Zarkus · May 4, 2013

Is this better than the basic asus/creative sound cards?

RejZoR · May 4, 2013

"Basic" Creative soundcard these days is Sound Blaster Z. 115dB SNR, high end components and state of the art audio processor. Creative raised the bar quite a bit with SB Z models and also lowered the price as well.

Hood · May 4, 2013

RejZoR said:
"Basic" Creative soundcard these days is Sound Blaster Z. 115dB SNR, high end components and state of the art audio processor. Creative raised the bar quite a bit with SB Z models and also lowered the price as well.

At $89 I wouldn't call it cheap, adding the ALC1150 codec probably only costs 10-$15.

erocker · May 6, 2013

Hood said:
Very nice, Asrock is helping push towards better on board audio, the rest will have to follow or lose market share. Good name for the new codec - ALC1150=115dB SNR - easy to remember. This is another reason to upgrade to socket H3/1150/Haswell (there's that number again!). Anyone want to buy a brand new hardly used at all Ivy Bridge system?

They're just doing what Asus has already done with boards such as the Maximus V and Maximus V Gene. Pretty sure the IV and Gene IV did it too. But yeah, this is great that everyone is following suit. I'd much rather stick with onboard if I can.

badtaylorx · May 7, 2013

i love my SB-Z, but holy sunglasses batman those red leds are bright!!!!

System Name	RBMK-1000
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling	DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory	2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s)	Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage	Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s)	BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case	Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s)	ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply	Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse	ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard	Gamdias Hermes E2
Software	Windows 11 Pro

System Name	Awesomesauce 4.3 \| Laptop (MSI GE72VR 6RF Apache Pro-023)
Processor	Intel Core i7-5820K 4.16GHz 1.28v/3GHz 1.05v uncore \| Intel Core i7-6700HQ @ 3.1GHz
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-X99-UD5 WiFi LGA2011-v3\| Stock
Cooling	Corsair H100i v2 w/ 2x EK Vardar F4-120ER + various 120/140mm case fans \| Stock
Memory	G.Skill RJ-4 16GB DDR4-2666 CL15 quad channel \| 12GB DDR4-2133
Video Card(s)	EVGA GTX 1080 Ti Hybrid SC2 11GB @ 2012/5151 boost \| NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB +200/+500 + Intel 530
Storage	Samsung 840 EVO 500GB + Seagate 3TB 7200RPM + others \| Kingston 256GB M.2 SATA + 1TB 7200RPM
Display(s)	Acer G257HU 1440p 60Hz AH-IPS 4ms \| 17.3" 1920*1080 60Hz wide angle TN notebook panel
Case	Fractal Design Define XL R2 \| MSI
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster Z \| Realtek with quad stereo speakers and subwoofer
Power Supply	Corsair HX850i Platinum \| 19.5v 180w Delta brick
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64 \| Windows 10 Home x64

System Name	Ryzen Reflection
Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 5900x
Motherboard	Gigabyte X570S Aorus Master
Cooling	2x EK PE360 \| TechN AM4 AMD Block Black \| EK Quantum Vector Trinity GPU Nickel + Plexi
Memory	Teamgroup T-Force Xtreem 2x16GB B-Die 3600 @ 14-14-14-28-42-288-2T 1.45v
Video Card(s)	Zotac AMP HoloBlack RTX 3080Ti 12G \| 950mV 1950Mhz
Storage	WD SN850 500GB (OS) \| Samsung 980 Pro 1TB (Games_1) \| Samsung 970 Evo 1TB (Games_2)
Display(s)	Asus XG27AQM 240Hz G-Sync Fast-IPS \| Gigabyte M27Q-P 165Hz 1440P IPS \| LG 24" IPS 1440p
Case	Lian Li PC-011D XL \| Custom cables by Cablemodz
Audio Device(s)	FiiO K7 \| Sennheiser HD650 + Beyerdynamic FOX Mic
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum 850
Mouse	Razer Viper v2 Pro
Keyboard	Corsair K65 Plus 75% Wireless - USB Mode
Software	Windows 11 Pro 64-Bit

System Name	DEVIL'S ABYSS
Processor	i7-4790K@4.6 GHz
Motherboard	Asus Z97-Deluxe
Cooling	Corsair H110 (2 x 140mm)(3 x 140mm case fans)
Memory	16GB Adata XPG V2 2400MHz
Video Card(s)	EVGA 780 Ti Classified
Storage	Intel 750 Series 400GB (AIC), Plextor M6e 256GB (M.2), 13 TB storage
Display(s)	Crossover 27QW (27"@ 2560x1440)
Case	Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC1150
Power Supply	Cooler Master V1000
Mouse	Ttsports Talon Blu
Keyboard	Logitech G510
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64 version 1803
Benchmark Scores	Passmark CPU score = 13080

System Name	Mr. Obsolete\| Ms. Old
Processor	Intel Core i5 3570K \| Intel Core i7 6700
Motherboard	Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe \| Asus Maximus VIII Gene
Cooling	DeepCool GAMMAXX 120 \| Coolermaster i7C
Memory	Kingston HyperX 1866 16GB (8x2) \| Kingston HyperX 2400 16GB (8x2)
Video Card(s)	Asus TUF GTX 1650 Super \| Asus ROG Strix GTX 1050Ti
Storage	Intel 330 180GB + WD Blue 1TB \| ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB + WD Blue 1TB
Display(s)	ASUS VZ239HE \| ASUS VZ239HR
Case	Silverstone SG13B \| Silverstone PS15B
Audio Device(s)	On-Board Realtek ALC898 + Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3 \| ROG SupremeFX 2015 + Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3
Power Supply	FSP SFX PRO 450 \| Seasonic S12-III 500
Software	Windows 10 Home

ASRock Introduces A-Style Purity Sound

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator

Jstn7477

MxPhenom 216

ASIC Engineer

Hood

bim27142

NeoXF

jagd

de.das.dude

Pro Indian Modder

omnimodis78

Jstn7477

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

TurdFergasun

New Member

Hood

Aquinus

Resident Wat-man

Hood

Zarkus

New Member

RejZoR

Hood

erocker

*

badtaylorx

System Name	[WIP]
Processor	Intel Pentium G3420 [i7-4790K SOON(tm)]
Motherboard	MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming
Cooling	[Corsair H100i]
Memory	G.Skill TridentX 2x8GB-2400-CL10 DDR3
Video Card(s)	[MSI AMD Radeon R9-290 Gaming]
Storage	Seagate 2TB Desktop SSHD / [Samsung 256GB 840 PRO]
Display(s)	[BenQ XL2420Z]
Case	[Corsair Obsidian 750D]
Power Supply	Corsair RM750
Software	Windows 8.1 x64 Pro / Linux Mint 15 / SteamOS

Processor	C2duo e6750@ 2800mhz
Motherboard	GA-P43T-ES3G
Cooling	Xigmatek S1283
Memory	2x2Gb Kingstone HyperX DDR3 1600 (KHX1600C9D3K2/4GX )
Video Card(s)	HIS HD 6870
Storage	samsung HD103SJ
Case	Xigmatek Utgard
Audio Device(s)	X-FI Titanium Pci-e
Power Supply	Xigmatek NRP-PC702 700W
Software	win7 ultimate -64bit

System Name	Monke \| Work Thinkpad\| J1nnx took Old Monke
Processor	Ryzen 5600X \| Ryzen 5500U \| FX8320
Motherboard	ASRock B550 Extreme4 \| ? \| Asrock 990FX Extreme 4
Cooling	240mm Rad \| Not needed \| hyper 212 EVO
Memory	2x16GB DDR4 3600 Corsair RGB \| 16 GB DDR4 3600 \| 16GB DDR3 1600
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse RX6700XT 12GB \| Vega 8 \| Sapphire Pulse RX580 8GB
Storage	Samsung 980 nvme (Primary) \| some samsung SSD
Display(s)	Dell 2723DS \| Some 14" 1080p 98%sRGB IPS \| Dell 2240L
Case	Ant Esports Tempered case \| Thinkpad \| Antec
Audio Device(s)	Logitech Z333 \| Jabra corpo stuff
Power Supply	Corsair RM750e \| not needed \| Corsair GS 600
Mouse	Logitech G400 \| nipple
Keyboard	Logitech G213 \| stock kb is awesome \| Logitech K230
VR HMD	;_;
Software	Windows 10 Professional x3
Benchmark Scores	There are no marks on my bench

System Name	PC
Processor	Intel i5-3570K @ 4.4Ghz
Motherboard	ASRock Z77 Extreme4
Cooling	Cooler Master V8
Memory	G.SKILL RipjawsX 4x4GB DDR3 1600Mhz (F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXM)
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte GTX 970 (GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD, rev. 1.0)
Storage	Intel 530 180GB + Intel 520 120GB + multiple HDDs
Display(s)	Samsung SyncMaster P2770 via DVI
Case	Antec Eleven Hundred
Audio Device(s)	Sound Blaster ZxR
Power Supply	CORSAIR AX760
Software	Windows 7 Pro x64 (w/ all updates + SP1)

System Name	Apollo
Processor	Intel Core i9 9880H
Motherboard	Some proprietary Apple thing.
Memory	64GB DDR4-2667
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, 8GB HBM2
Storage	1TB Apple NVMe, 4TB External
Display(s)	Laptop @ 3072x1920 + 2x LG 5k Ultrafine TB3 displays
Case	MacBook Pro (16", 2019)
Audio Device(s)	AirPods Pro, Sennheiser HD 380s w/ FIIO Alpen 2, or Logitech 2.1 Speakers
Power Supply	96w Power Adapter
Mouse	Logitech MX Master 3
Keyboard	Logitech G915, GL Clicky
Software	MacOS 12.1

System Name	fred
Processor	3570k @ 4.5ghz
Motherboard	Z77-UD5H
Cooling	noctua nh-c14
Memory	8gb crucial ddr3 1866
Video Card(s)	xfx 6950
Storage	crucial m4 256gb
Display(s)	benq ew2420
Audio Device(s)	onboard
Power Supply	PCPC silencer 750w v.1

Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard	ASUS TUF x670e-Plus Wifi
Cooling	EK AIO 360. Phantek T30 fans.
Memory	32GB G.Skill 6000Mhz
Video Card(s)	Asus RTX 4090
Storage	WD/Samsung m.2's
Display(s)	LG C2 Evo OLED 42"
Case	Lian Li PC 011 Dynamic Evo
Audio Device(s)	Topping E70 DAC, SMSL SP200 Amp, Adam Audio T5V's, Hifiman Sundara's.
Power Supply	FSP Hydro Ti PRO 1000W
Mouse	Razer Basilisk V3 Pro
Keyboard	Epomaker 84 key
Software	Windows 11 Pro

System Name	As Himself
Processor	2700X
Motherboard	Asrock 370X ThaiChi
Cooling	Custom Liquid
Memory	4133MHz Team
Video Card(s)	Radeon VII
Storage	Samsung 512 SSD's
Display(s)	Asus "24 144Hz
Case	Tt P5
Audio Device(s)	Asus Essence One Muses/Sparkos
Power Supply	EVGA 1200
Mouse	RAT ProX
Keyboard	Drop CTRL
Software	W10 steam futuremark