A question about PC audio outputs

I'm not familiar with your particular motherboard but it's been my experience that better sound can be obtained using an external DAC.  The little firefly USB dacs have good reviews and there are a lot of similar devices for even cheaper. 

A long headphone to RCA would work and sound OK but there are better optios.  

No unless you are resigned to it. My Asus soundcard is better but still sucks even through toslink compared to m2tech coax or USB purifier to whatever DAC does it for you. The cheapest one you can find is better than the built in audio.

There's no point in using the motherboard audio out if you're not hearing any interference using the case audio jack.

I've had such vast differences in audio quality from one motherboard to another that, while this is your personal opinion, it really isn't very helpful. A previous motherboard had audio so poorly isolated that any time you moved the mouse you would hear hear a buzz - never a problem in the days of separate sound cards, but also not a problem with most of the more recent on-board audio solutions I've run into. My current motherboard has wonderful, perfectly isolated sound - and I have no idea if that is due to better all-around isolation, the relatively high-end chipset, or some other factor. Realtek doesn't even list most of their newer audio codecs on their webpage so it is tough to tell what you are getting, and the motherboard manufacturers give little or no information on their built-in amps or the audio pathway in general. It would be really cool if someone actually took a look at the hardware motherboard manufacturers were using, and how it differs from a cheap external option. The GA-Z270N-WiFi in my most recent build says it has a "smart headphone amp" and "high-end audio capacitors", but of course there is no specification data on them, and no reviews really go into what any of that means or how it compares to any other motherboard, and the ALC 1220 codec is absent from Realtek's webpage - so it really is all a mystery.

It probably isn't a physical isolation issue but a driver issue.  USB signals are are interfering but an updated driver will fix the mouse issue.  Finding the correct driver is the trick but this is a known issue.

I've had such vast differences in audio quality from one motherboard to another that, while this is your personal opinion, it really isn't very helpful. A previous motherboard had audio so poorly isolated that any time you moved the mouse you would hear hear a buzz - never a problem in the days of separate sound cards, but also not a problem with most of the more recent on-board audio solutions I've run into. My current motherboard has wonderful, perfectly isolated sound - and I have no idea if that is https://speedtest.vet/ due to better all-around isolation, the relatively high-end chipset, or some other factor. Realtek doesn't even list most of their newer audio codecs on their webpage so it is tough to tell what you are getting, and the motherboard manufacturers give little or no information on their built-in amps or the audio pathway in general. It would be really cool if someone actually took a look at the hardware motherboard manufacturers were using https://vidmate.bid/, and how it differs from a cheap external option. The GA-Z270N-WiFi in my most recent build says it has a "smart headphone amp" and "high-end audio capacitors", but of course there is no specification data on them, and no reviews really go into what any of that means or how it compares to any other motherboard, and the ALC 1220 codec is absent from Realtek's webpage - so it really is all a mystery.


I got this,...