iMac sound card vs asrock extreme6 z87 on-board

I'm curious about the difference in sound card performance between a late 2011 iMac and my current on-board audio, which has a Realtek ALC1150 (I know it's not great and on the list of upgrades). I haven't been able to find exactly what the iMac uses, but here is some info I found from the apple website about the specs of the audio output.

Does anyone have any experience with iMacs?

"During playback of a 1 kHz sine wave at -3 dBFS voltage level, 24-bit sample depth, 44.1 kHz output sample rate, 100 k load (unless otherwise specified) the audio output has the following nominal specifications:

Jack type: 3.5 mm (1/8-inch) stereo combo
Maximum output voltage: 1.6 VRMS (+6.3 dBu)
Output impedance: <24 ohms
Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20 kHz, +0.5 dB/-3 dB
Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR): >90 dB
Total harmonic distortion + noise (THD+N): <-80 dB (0.007%)
Channel separation: >85 dB"

Is there some feature in particular you're looking for? They iMac is definitely going to be an on-board solution, and there's not too much to differentiate one fairly modern onboard sound chip from another.

Sorry I should have mentioned! LOL

I was previously using an iMac for several years. Sold it a month ago and built this new PC. I'm very sensitive to sound and I noticed a difference 100% between the two, using Klipsch promedia 2.1. I can tell yet if it's better or worse, but I am starting to think it's a better quality sound coming through. Anyway I don't understand the technical aspects of sound cards so I was wondering if anyone did know if there was a clear cut difference in specs between the two on-board solutions.

Onboard sound is usually in the "sounds fine for most things" range of quality. Could be there's a big difference between the two, but I'd be surprised. Most discrete sound cards would be a step up. The Asus Xonar series is pretty popular, you might want to start your research there. Since you have powered speakers your sound card doesn't need to have a good amplifier, so you would be fine with one of the cheaper ones.

johan851 said:

Onboard sound is usually in the "sounds fine for most things" range of quality. Could be there's a big difference between the two, but I'd be surprised. Most discrete sound cards would be a step up. The Asus Xonar series is pretty popular, you might want to start your research there. Since you have powered speakers your sound card doesn't need to have a good amplifier, so you would be fine with one of the cheaper ones.

Click to expand...

That makes sense. I am looking into sounds cards but I am trying to get a little nicer one as I plan on purchasing a set of headphones eventually, and I would like a nice amp for that in the card.

Thanks for your help!