Benchmarks: Audio
The audio experience is always going to be subjective; different users will have different audio equipment, prefer different sound profiles and so forth. Rightmark Audio Analyser provides a good way of getting around this subjectivity as it measures theoretical audio quality. The benchmark analyses a number of variables before outputting a performance summary.
The audio experience is typical of the Realtek ALC1150 codec and strong performance numbers are delivered. The unmeasurable aspects of audio, namely the software suite and hardware enhancements such as amplifiers and switchable op-amps, are absent.
DPC latency is an alternative way of inferring audio quality when each system starts from the same clean software base. Any value below 500 microseconds will result in smooth audio and visual playback, and the Supermicro C7Z97-M easily passes this threshold.
