Blast from the past when I saw ESS logo 🙂 I thought they don't exist anymore in budget segment of PC audio solutions. Last time I saw ESS logo on some audio card was more than 15, 16, 17 years ago on some ESS audio cards made for ISA slot. Why MSI decided to go ESS route this time instead of e.g. Realtek? Wonder if ESS can compete with similar HD audio solutions from Realtek (or rarely used IDT, Conexant...), really doubt about that...

Blast from the past when I saw ESS logo 🙂 I thought they don't exist anymore in budget segment of PC audio solutions. Last time I saw ESS logo on some audio card was more than 15, 16, 17 years ago on some ESS audio cards made for ISA slot. Why MSI decided to go ESS route this time instead of e.g. Realtek? Wonder if ESS can compete with similar HD audio solutions from Realtek (or rarely used IDT, Conexant...), really doubt about that...

I actually came to post a similar comment about ESS. best times ever man.

The ability to enable Hi-Res Audio with a 24bit/192kbps sampling rate to support the Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) forma

Probably kHz. But that signal to noise ratio is just crazy good for something inside notebook. Edit: But, to be honest, if that sound solution is as good as it says... One should have $200 earphones to enjoy sound it makes. Realistically $250+ to get close to max experience.