X370 Taichi - Advertised Headphone Amplifier

NinjaQuick wrote: I love my Taichi, let's get that out of the way. ASROCK nailed it with the design, the support, the BIOS (although there are some things here and there that make me groan a bit). However, the (still) advertised TI headphone amp doesn't seem to be working, or at least not working as intended. I like to hope maybe ASROCK engages its community so here's to hoping: I realize that Realtek makes the drivers, but I can help but notice the amp setting was removed from the latest driver, and that's a bit disappointing. I don't know if it was a flaw in the impedance sensing design, or the CODEC not controlling the external amp as intended, and I can find documentation on this ALC 1220 chip, so that can't answer me either. Basically, is this feature ever going to be fully supported? Has anyone tested it to see if it appears to be working at all? I'm asking now, after months of ownership, because I am getting the MassdropxHifiman HE4XX and need to know if I have to purchase an external amp. My current audio gear is all doing OK with the ALC1220's output.

I'm not certain what exactly the problem or situation is with the new driver version. I have a different ASRock board with the Realtek 1220 and TI NE5532 headset chip, which has the Realtek 8051 driver version on the download page.

When you said the "amp setting", exactly what do you mean by that? Just the impedance matching feature, or something else? Or what exactly is the problem?

The Massdrop headphones you mentioned are low impedance 'phones (35 Ohms), which is the current trend, and usually it is the high impedance headphones that have volume level problems with PC audio outputs. OTOH, planar magnetic drivers tend to be current hungry devices, and the impedance rating is just a single general rating. The impedance varies at different frequencies, just like loudspeakers. Low impedance means high current usage normally, but cheap headphones (NOT what you plan on using) are simple dynamic types that are easy to drive.

If you are really into audio, which you seem to be, consider what your mother board costs compared to a headphone amp. Even if a headphone amp had a one chip amplifier, it still would have a dedicated power supply. I've often wondered why mother board audio chips would need impedance sensing software, when that is unheard of in audio equipment. While the NE5532 chip may be "high end" on a PC mother board, it is not legendary in high end audio products, a very standard, nothing special device in that world.

IMO PC audio is a nice little add on to a mother board, but how good can it be? I use the S/PDIF output from the board into an external DAC, and its output into a real amplifier, driving speakers.

Realtek controls their chips and drivers, and how much influence a mother board manufacture can have over their drivers, I don't know, but it is likely not much if any, at least in the short term.

...or you can use a modified driver



Currently working to repair all band pass,Realtek or Asrock did screw up on this part.Planning to give "a value" to bass management for subs,250Hz for low to mid,250Hz-4KHz for mid low to mid high and beyond 4KHz for high.In the mean time my friend also help me to working on "headphone amplifier" supporting all the way up to 600Ω.