B850M-X [WiFi] quick review.

I have to concur on the audio situation. I recently put together a new build with the B650M-HDV/M.2 (which is an extremely similar board that also uses ALC897) and a 9800x3d. I'm very happy with the board, but the audio quality difference is stark. The audio chipset wasn't something I was really thinking about, but once I got back into Windows and started testing things out I immediately noticed how much worse the audio was compared to my previous build (on an old X99 motherboard with ALC1150). That's with earbuds.

Despite that, though, I'm satisfied with my B650M-HDV/M2 and will be recommending the B850M-X to people.

Audio isn't a deal breaker for a lot of people. There are so many bluetooth, USB
and other external audio options out there, many of which people already own, the
onboard audio is not as critical, particularly with more budget oriented boards.
Even your GPU has audio through it's HDMI/DP output. If audio is a big concern then
there are other board options available, both from ASRock and other manufacturers.

Eccential was simply noting that the onboard audio was an area that had been
compromised on with this board (B850M-X Wifi). There is always compromise on lower
cost boards, this is why there are so many models to choose from. Some may be OK
with weak audio, others may prefer not having as many M.2 slots, some may only
want or need 2 RAM slots etc. Personally, I use high end sound devices on my
systems so the onboard audio is completely unnecessary for me, I don't use it.
I am far from the only one.