ASRock Introduces A-Style Purity Sound

[btarunr]

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.

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[Jstn7477]

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]

Interesting! Could be good if it has good drivers.

 

[Hood]

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]

This looks (or sounds) promising...

 

[NeoXF]

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]

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

 

[de.das.dude]

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]

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.

 

[Jstn7477]

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]

alc898 rocks!

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

 

[TurdFergasun]

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]

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]

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.

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]

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]

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

 

[RejZoR]

"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]

"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]

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]

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