SFF.Network [SFF Network] BIOSTAR Introduces the Hi-Fi B150S5

BIOSTAR has introduced its latest Hi-Fi series motherboard intended for gaming and multimedia system builders. With support for the latest 6th-gen Intel Core processors and support for PCI-e 3.0 devices, BIOSTAR claims their Hi-Fi series can give with a full-immersive audio and visual experience powered by the latest processors and DDR4 memory up to a maximum of 32GB. The BIOSTAR Hi-Fi B150S5 also features options for utilizing high-speed storage via an onboard M.2 slot.

Read more here.

 

[iFreilicht]

Not really exciting, the bottom PCIe slot is just x4 so no SLI, I/O is lackluster, pretty much a budget board in every respect.

But the white USB port is pretty interesting. It's only connected to the power circuit, not the data lines, and can supply up to 1.5A of power. So it's a dedicated phone charging port on the mainboard. I've never seen anything like that before.

 

[confusis]

There's not much being launched at the moment, so news articles are a bit like picking up the scraps!

 

[FCase]

Are there any other MATX boards with a 244mm x 195mm dimension like this has?

Mal

 

[confusis]

Quite a few - mostly lower tier units though. Intel H/B chipset or budget AMD boards.

 

[Phuncz]

HiFi --> Realtek ALC887
Nope, not even close.

 

[confusis]

Agreed!

I'd like to see mobos eschewing the onboard audio and just going for bundled USB DACs in the future.. in saying that.. $$

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

I guess the "Hi-Fi" related to those 4 poor blue caps. Prolly a small improvement, but the ALV887 is nowhere near an Hi-Fi source.

 

[Phuncz]

Don't forget that yellow squigly line that somehow marks drastic sound improvements because it's "isolated".

 

[Soul_Est]

Better off with a USB DAC and the amplifier of your choice for your current system.

 

[EdZ]

HiFi --> Realtek ALC887
Nope, not even close.

Eh, Hi-Fi enough for most listening applications.

Using world-class headphones, a $2 Realtek integrated audio codec could not be reliably distinguished from the $2000 Benchmark DAC2 HGC in a four-device round-up. Again, all four devices sounded great.

The days of shitty AC97 motherboard audio are long in the past. If you have an external amplifier to drive headphones/speakers (in the event of Impedance Weirdness or just a desire for more output power), as a line-out device motherboard audio is fine unless the manufacturer really screwed something up.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

Well .... Using my AKG K701 directly plug to my Asus Gryphon ALC897 really doesn't sound the same than pluging it to, lets say, my vintage BurrBrown's 16 bits DAC. I only play CDs or CDs ripped as WAV files (OK I'm an audio nuts lol).

Using my Marshall Major II .... well, they sound OK regardless of the source. Some headphones are more forgiving or easy to drive than others. K701 are known to be a hell of a headphone to drive .

Where I agree is that integrated audio improved since the AC97' time

 

[EdZ]

Well .... Using my AKG K701 directly plug to my Asus Gryphon ALC897 really doesn't sound the same than pluging it to, lets say, my vintage BurrBrown's 16 bits DAC. I only play CDs or CDs ripped as WAV files (OK I'm an audio nuts lol).

The AKG K701 has a stonking huge 60+Ohm impedance, so you'd have to turn the volume right down on the amp (and right up on the motherboard) to get even close to the equal volume required to perform a comparison: our brains perceive "louder" = "better" for sound and do other weird things that makes performing objective comparisons with your ears particularly tricky.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

60 Ohms is not huge and the K701 is considered as a low impedance headphone. I consider as "low impedance" any cans with a Z between 8 and 64 Ohms.

The problem with the K701 is that it is a very analytic pair of cans. It has absolutly no pity for electrical noise or bad recordings. Just plug it to your motherboard output, play no sound and just enjoy the electrical noise ... A good recording will sound awesome, but a bad recording will sound awfull.

 

[Phuncz]

I'm no audiophile or hifi enthusiast but my untrained ears can still hear where the ALC1150, arguably Realtek's best sound chip, falls short. Even with my beaten Sennheiser HD 555 and using the quality OP-amp from my Asus Impact VII. Sure, it will do with crummy speakers or even me olde Z-5500 in noisy environments with moderately mastered music. But the ALC-887 has much worse noise floors, making @GuilleAcoustic 's noise phenomenon even worse, let alone cost dearly in music quality.

 

[EdZ]

I'm no audiophile or hifi enthusiast but my untrained ears can still hear where the ALC1150, arguably Realtek's best sound chip, falls short. Even with my beaten Sennheiser HD 555 and using the quality OP-amp from my Asus Impact VII. Sure, it will do with crummy speakers or even me olde Z-5500 in noisy environments with moderately mastered music. But the ALC-887 has much worse noise floors, making @GuilleAcoustic 's noise phenomenon even worse, let alone cost dearly in music quality.

I'd put the blame squarely on the on-board amplifier there. It's hard to screw up a DAC design, but very easy to screw up an amp.

60 Ohms is not huge and the K701 is considered as a low impedance headphone. I consider as "low impedance" any cans with a Z between 8 and 64 Ohms.

60 Ohm is pretty high, 'low impedance' would be in the 10-25 Ohm range (think IEMs and other in-ear heaphones). They're also pretty difficult to drive at well under 100dB/mW. So...

The problem with the K701 is that it is a very analytic pair of cans. It has absolutly no pity for electrical noise or bad recordings. Just plug it to your motherboard output, play no sound and just enjoy the electrical noise ... A good recording will sound awesome, but a bad recording will sound awfull.

Driving them directly from the motherboard output is going to give very bad results. That's not down to the DAC being bad, it's down the the motherboard amplification (or lack thereof).