05-20-2018 08:42 PM - last edited 3 weeks ago by ROGBot
05-20-2018 09:58 PM
05-21-2018 02:14 AM
Korth wrote:
https://us.hardware.info/product/413349/asus-rog-maximus-x-hero/testresults
https://www.bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/motherboards/asus-rog-maximus-x-hero-review/6/
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?98717-How-is-the-audio-quality-on-rog-maximus-x-hero
I don't own this Maximus, but from what I've read (at above links and several other testing/review/comparison sites) it seems to me that it has good audio overall, a few excellent performances and some unimpressive ones, it generally places around the middle of the list when compared vs other Z370 motherboards. The ASUS SupremeFX (and other audio) softwares can apparently make things sound quite awful without some finicky tweaking.
I think it should be pretty decent for gaming and music listening, at least on the headset/headphone output. Not a lot better or worse than any other motherboard within the price range, those mobos which do have better integrated audio also have substantially higher pricetags. To be honest, I think that if (professional) audio quality is important to you then the smart choice would be to pair this board with dedicated audio hardware (either an internal soundcard or an external audio device, and my personal experience/opinion strongly favours external audio options).
Onboard-integrated audio is basically a fancy codec chip plus a handful of tiny components (usually some filter caps and one or two op-amps) stuffed into one corner of the mobo, while a dedicated audio device is basically a whole PCB (on a daughterboard or in a box) which is packed with many dedicated components (including more caps and op-amps and whole arrays of analog audio-grade parts) ... it's the audio equivalent of comparing a processor-embedded iGPU vs a dedicated full GPU card, the former is fine for lightweight use but the latter is used on any task which requires serious performance/quality.
05-21-2018 10:16 AM
originaldown wrote:
I want something that is very good for audio as I listen to music a lot and plan on using FL Studio 12 to make some beats.
Korth wrote:
... if (professional) audio quality is important to you then the smart choice would be to pair this board with dedicated audio hardware ...
originaldown wrote:
With that being said then.. would this be worth the value over the z370-a?
05-21-2018 11:55 PM
Korth wrote:
Also take note that the vast majority of MAXIMUS X HERO users have never complained about their audio, indeed many have actually praised it strongly. It might even turn out to be an issue which affects a small percentage of "flawed" motherboards or which only becomes evident under very specific conditions with particular hardware combinations, etc ... basically, the sort of thing you could reasonably expect to be a non-issue over 99% of the time. I'm not flippantly handwaving the bad audio reports/complaints away - I'm sure they're legit and frustrating/annoying and probably not very exaggerated - I am pointing out that they seem to occur on only a tiny minority of these motherboards ... a total five unhappy audio users on these forums, so far, among the thousands who bought this popular motherboard.
05-21-2018 03:31 AM