Motherboard Audio

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 31st, 2006, 17:26

Ok, so the guy who previously owned my motherboard and case was a little lazy and hadn't wired up all the stuff fully, including the front USB, mic and headphone sockets. The USB was no problem, but I'm having issues with the audio.

My motherboard is an ASUS A8N-E, and the manual has this helpful offering by way of guidance:

Now I removed the jumpers (as shown in blue) between Bline out L & Line out L, and Bline out R & Line out R so I could connect wires (Which I connected to the Line out connectors, not the "B" ones), but once I did, I only got sound out of the front port, not the speakers which I have plugged into the rear. I was wondering if theres any way of having both ports working simulateously so I can plug headphones in the front but leave speakers in the rear?

Also, the Mic wires are labeled differently to those shown in the manual, and are called: Mic In, Mic BIAS, GND and Return R. Which of the connectors should they be attached to in order to work properly?

Ta muchly.

amblin · Post by **amblin** » January 31st, 2006, 17:38

friznit · Post by **friznit** » January 31st, 2006, 18:02

ASUS on board audio sux arses. It's shit. Final. I'm using it, so I know. Everythign about it is horrible. Soon as I find the funds to go buy one of them spangly Creative thingies I will. Next?

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 31st, 2006, 18:05

friznit wrote:ASUS on board audio sux arses. It's shit. Final. I'm using it, so I know. Everythign about it is horrible.

bollocks.

Depends on the board mostly, a lot of the nforce 2 boards still rock very fucking hard for onboard audio (though, the mics are too quiet) and some line noise happens unless you use the digital outputs.

Post by **deject** » January 31st, 2006, 18:12

With the exception of the nForce2 SoundStorm and some of the newer Intel Azalia-based mobo's, all onboard sound is crap. Pretty much everyone would be better off with a $30 SoundBlaster Live! card than what comes on most mobos. The exceptions, the nForce2 and Azalia, are good, but they're still not as good overall as say an audigy or audigy 2.

wyrd · Post by **wyrd** » January 31st, 2006, 18:51

i use the soundstorm onboard audio

and i couldn't figure out all of the differnt lables on my mobo and case for the front ports, so left it at firewire and usb

i did however splash out 20p on a splitter and plug both my headphones and speakers into teh rear port and use the inline volume control on my headphones to turn them 'off'

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » February 6th, 2006, 11:32

Is it worth shelling out for a PCI soundcard then? Anyone got any recommendations? Don't want to be paying more than £20, including delivery, cos I'm fairly poor just now.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » February 6th, 2006, 12:13

Lateralus wrote:Is it worth shelling out for a PCI soundcard then? Anyone got any recommendations? Don't want to be paying more than £20, including delivery, cos I'm fairly poor just now.

yes, and no.

yes if you can get a proper soundcard for that little, no if you can't.

basically beware anything without a bigass chip on it, often they'll be no better than onboard sound, and will rely on your cpu to do all the work.

pretty much any of these are fine.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/ ... cards.html

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » February 6th, 2006, 12:17

see also:

http://www.5punk.co.uk/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1571

cashy · Post by **cashy** » February 6th, 2006, 18:47

wyrd wrote: i did however splash out 20p on a splitter and plug both my headphones and speakers into teh rear port and use the inline volume control on my headphones to turn them 'off'

you fucking legend! im forever crawling under my desk swapping them over. i never knew such magic was possible