Old speakers giving better sound at old soundchip?

Stefan1971HH

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Sep 29, 2010
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Hello,
I have a Logitech 2.1 speaker set. It had given very good and clear sound
connected to my old mainboard with Realtek AC 97 soundchip.

Now I got a new board with Realtek ALC889 HD audio, and the same speakers give significantly worse dynamics-lacking sound here.
I then tried an Asus Xonar DX soundcard and found the speakers giving better sound than from the new onboard chip, but still inferior to the old board's Realtek AC97.

Question: Can it be normal that old analog speakers sound worse on analog jack of modern HD soundchips or cards, than on old chips that have exclusively analog output?

thanks,
Stefan
 

rexter

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Mar 17, 2006
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Make sure you're not set on 5.1, lots of people forgot to or don't know how to switch it back to stereo.

It's hard to tell really, some old chips are better than the new one in my opinion. Some might not notice difference between the two without comparing it side by side. But I also believe it has something to do with the driver, i think? Unfortunately, no one has tested between two onboard sound chip yet. I found I like the C-Media chip over VIA and Via over Realtek. I remeber Cirrus logic are good too. I notice C-Media sounds warmer than the rest unless it's a tube, especially if connected to Amplifier. Most people think onboard sound is cheap, but I would prefer to connect my amplifier with my old onboard sound chip from Asus PS4333 or to the P4V8X-MX than connecting any of my SoundBlaster Audigy.