ACL is a codec same thing as those old school VIA codecs. it still needs a DAC to work.

each mobo audio consists of a codec, a dac and an adc. generally they suckballs unless for example gigabyte x570 that uses an ess sabre. However the realtek ACL still makes the output sucksballs even with a sabre mainly blaming on the software side.

This post has been edited by Bonchi: Dec 21 2020, 08:24 AM

External dac also need to have usb codecs to run.. However youre not entirely wrong either about certain ALC chips because their lower end will have an integrated dac but they are usually terrible.

Theyre generaly the controllers that prepare the digital signal from the source to be processed by the DAC chips.

It can actually be quite confusing from even back in the days with alot of debates because some codecs comes with a simple dac while some doesnt. Some comes as a pcb with multiple components while some is fully integrated. Some even have an integrated amp which most ALC does.

So yeah.... i rather just call them a controller/processor instead. For example the soundblaster you using has something called the Xfi processor chip that acts the same way as the realtek.

This post has been edited by Bonchi: Dec 21 2020, 10:28 AM

many mobo scrape off the code number of the DAC chips theyre using, or just use the integrated dac that some of the ALC model comes with. Unless if it’s highend then it becomes a marketing tool to publish what dac chip is being used like the gigabyte’s sabre (because high end DAC chips are not cheap), which is paired with an ALC if youre wondering.

infact in the past there are mobo that came with Xfi instead of ALC too..

There are as many controllers as there are DAC chips .. like soundblaster uses their Xfi paired usually with cirrus logic, prodigy commonly use VIA with AKM dacs, a vast amoung of portable usb uses texas intrument’s pcm plug and play controller.. these are the general ones and there are many many more which will be a never ending pairing list.

while a decent onboard is bonus for normal users.... There’s no discussion I suppose because no audio enthusiast will be bothered with onboard especially with all the unknown chips and realtek as the controller. They’ll just look externally for the specs they want.

not all ALC has integrated DAC and probably using a separate one could be better. And hiding the chip info has always been common practice. Even on rams they sometimes remove the IC’s code so need typhoon burner to find out what it is.

Sabre dac is just a dac it cant communicate with windows, so that’s what the ALC is used for, thus the ALC is more like a controller as i’ve mentioned... The DAC the Realtek ALC are all different chips that makes up a circuit.

maybe ALC is easier to implement on the mobo as theyve been doing it for so long. So just pass the DAC task to the sabre for “better” sound.

That’s technically what most audiophiles look at.. the controller, the dac, the amp to be all discrete and somewhat soldered isolated from each other.


my latest purchase. no good DAC on this so i disabled the audio in the bios entirely.



This post has been edited by Bonchi: Dec 21 2020, 08:53 PM

they are very clearly separated on the pcb. you can see each of the chips. Audio circuits are very simple. If you wanna make the effort, you can even make your own DAC like someone did and sold in this forum. pretty affordable sabre equiped usb thumbdrive DACs

yeah i have a usb dac.