Wednesday, October 27th 2021
Most of Gigabyte's Intel Z690 Motherboards Only Features Two Audio Jacks
Although we're going to try and cover all the newly launched Intel Z690 based motherboards more thoroughly before the retail availability date, we had a quick look already on what's on offer and we were struck by something rather odd when it comes to Gigabyte, most of their new boards only have two 3.5 mm audio jacks around the back. This is not limited to their cheaper SKUs, but is found through the entire product stack.
We're not entirely sure what's going on here and will check with Gigabyte once someone is awake that we can talk to about it, but we're fairly certain that this is going to cause a bit of a backlash from their customers. This was actually something we kind of saw in the leaked image of one of the Aero boards, as it didn't look like it had any audio jacks at all, but that wasn't the case. Instead, it seems to have something to do with Gigabyte's move away from the Realtek ALC1220 Intel HD audio based codecs that the company have been using for the past few generations of boards.
We first spotted this on the Z690I Aorus Ultra, a Mini-ITX board and didn't think too much of it, as Mini-ITX boards often have more limited audio ports. However, it turns out that everything from the fairly entry level Z690 Gaming X all the way up to the Z690 Aorus Xtreme has had their ports cut back, although there are models in between that still feature some variant of the ALC1220 audio codec. Most of the boards appear to feature the ALC4080, something we've already seen on some ASUS motherboards, although ASUS offers a full complement of ports on their boards. It should be noted that the ALC408x is a USB audio codec and as such doesn't appear to be Intel HD audio compliant, if it matters.
Some boards only have two 3.5 mm jacks as mentioned, whereas others also have an optical S/PDIF jack, but this can apparently not be used at the same time as the 3.5 mm jack and we're not sure if this requires you to unplug the 3.5 mm jack to use the S/PDIF interface. At least all of these boards sport a front panel audio header, but there are a couple of boards that make this whole change even more confusing. The first one is the Aero G, which in addition to the ALC4080 features an old and quite frankly poor quality ALC897 Intel HD codec for the front panel audio header. We really don't understand why, as this is a huge downgrade even from the ALC1220.
Finally we have the Z690 Aorus Xtreme, which does away with Realtek altogether, in favour of an ESS ES9280AC USB DAC and a pair of ESS ES9080 DAC's on top of that, all of which sits on a daughter card at the rear I/O. However, this board doesn't appear to have any kind of front audio connector. We'd also expect more than a couple of 3.5 mm audio jacks and an optical S/PDIF out with a setup like this, but apparently that's all we get. What's more, the Z690 Aorus Xtreme comes with an additional "ESSential" USB DAC that could be used for front audio, but which seems kind of wasted considering the high-end audio that the board already sports. We really don't follow Gigabyte's logic here and although it's nice to see some better quality audio solutions being used, we have a feeling a lot of people will want more than two audio jacks on their motherboard. We should also mention that none of Gigabyte's competitors offer a similar cut-back on audio jacks.
Source:
Gigabyte
We're not entirely sure what's going on here and will check with Gigabyte once someone is awake that we can talk to about it, but we're fairly certain that this is going to cause a bit of a backlash from their customers. This was actually something we kind of saw in the leaked image of one of the Aero boards, as it didn't look like it had any audio jacks at all, but that wasn't the case. Instead, it seems to have something to do with Gigabyte's move away from the Realtek ALC1220 Intel HD audio based codecs that the company have been using for the past few generations of boards.
74 Comments on Most of Gigabyte's Intel Z690 Motherboards Only Features Two Audio Jacks
Or something like (Intel) HD audio.
I suppose I get it on the rest of the lineup though. Seems like analog surround sound has pretty much and sadly died in the PC realm, with many using stereo or headphones. Many are going for outboard USB DACs as well. If you're going to use your PC as part of a home theater setup, you can route multichannel or stereo audio through the HDMI ports instead.
I love the Sabre output on my Z390 Master, but I really don't get multiple Sabres on a motherboard like the Extreme is spec'ing out.
And what's the point of using a USB DAC to add just two ports at the back? Why not bundle an external DAC instead then? I mean, Gigabyte makes one and I'm sure they could make a more affordable one for these boards if they think it's a better way for people to use audio.
Supposedly the ALC4080 can do 32-bit/384KHz audio compared to 24-bit/192KHz for the ALC1220 variants, not that I think anyone can hear the difference.
I have an ESS codec on my board as well, although only for the front connectors, but you can really tell the difference compared to the ALC1220, as the audio is a lot more "powerful" for a lack of a better word. That said, I have a wireless headset now and use neither... :rolleyes:As you can see, a lot of boards, including the Aero G, doesn't have an S/PDIF port.
Very strange decisions on some of the other boards though.
It's rather too bad, because onboard audio is really good these days. One of the things I hunt for in a new mainboard is a Sabre DAC with gold plated outputs. Makes me happy. Even the newer Realtek chips by themselves are really good, too.
This seems like an odd step in a direction that no-one really asked for.
Tried it for fun recently on my new motherboard, it sounded to flat and shallow compared to my nearly 10 year old Sound Blaster ZxR with replacable OpAmps, that card will last me another 10 years.
Gigabyte sucks at tech support, but they even suck harder at cost-cutting.
I think the market for cheap analogue 5.1 and 7.1 systems has dwindled because they used to be everywhere and now the focus is either on headphones, high-end stereo, or a proper HDMI receiver paired to a home theatre system.
In saying that, downgrading the codec is a big no. Audio codecs are not the expensive parts of a motherboard and if someone actually wants to use motherboard audio it really shouldn't suck.
Likewise, a line out and a headphone jack aren't the same, as headphone jacks and mic jacks are amplified, line jacks are not.
Obviously the typical Intel HD Audio standard is dead if you're going to use your PC for more modern audio codecs for movies, as a traditional S/PDIF can't support enough channels, nor most of the fancier multi-channel codecs and I think you're right with regards to analogue speakers, as there aren't much outside of 2.1-channel PC speakers these days.
I've had a few 5.1-channel setups over the years, but it was really the wiring that got to me, it's almost impossible to do it neatly. Also some analogue speakers had the centre and subwoofer reversed vs. how the audio jacks put out the sound, which was a really interesting issue, as the speaker wires wouldn't be swapped on that set.
I'm not sure this is a downgrade in quality, since as I mentioned above, you get 32-bit/384KHz support over 24-bit/192KHz support on the ALC1220.See above. It really comes down to what you're using the audio for.
Oh wait, we cant do that. Gotta charge even more for elss features.
I really hope this isn't the new direction I know too many people who prefer analog over digital