MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk Review – Successful balancing act between costs and performance

1 - Introduction and technical data 2 - Teardown and components 3 - Power consumption in detail 4 - Thermal imaging - Voltage regulators and PCB 5 - Performance 6 - PCIe 4.0 vs. PCIe 3.0 - the big comparison 7 - Audio measured! 8 - Summary and conclusion

Audio – measurement and evaluation

Finally, let’s move on to the audio and a review of what I would have liked to see better. As we already know, the ALC1200 has three amplifier outputs, but they are all identical. Realtek specifies up to 30 mW into 32 ohms, although it is probably the sum of all stereo channels times three. Because this is more likely to happen in practice. It is important to know that MSI has applied a small trick here.

The front audio on the D-port delivers a significantly higher voltage and thus a little more output power with higher impedance headphones. In this case you have probably tinkered a bit with the gain, because it is also possible to use the 1.1 Volt from the data sheet. In all other scenarios, it makes little difference whether the headphones are plugged in the front or the back because of the chip. The measly 5 mW per stereo channel is really nothing to tempt an enthusiast behind the oven.

It would have been possible to use the ALC1220, which delivers up to 2.1 Volt at the D-port, which would have been a real benefit, at least with high impedance headphones. Otherwise, as always, if you are looking for an acoustic experience with a, headset or headphones, you should rely on a proper internal or external sound card. This hasn’t changed in the MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk either.

Control measurements at the rear output

Control measurements at the font output (HD Audio)

MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk (7C91-001R)

	Zentrallager: 5 Stück lagernd, Lieferung 1-3 WerktageFiliale Wilhelmshaven: 5 Stück lagerndStand: 27.04.24 04:15	134,90 €*Stand: 27.04.24 04:20
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*Alle Preise inkl. gesetzl. MwSt zzgl. Versandkosten und ggf. Nachnahmegebühren, wenn nicht anders beschriebenmit freundlicher Unterstützung von geizhals.de

AMD Ryzen 7 3800X, 8C/16T, 3.90-4.50GHz, boxed (100-100000025BOX)

	Zentrallager: verfügbar, Lieferung 3-5 WerktageFiliale Wilhelmshaven: nicht lagerndStand: 27.04.24 04:15	225,65 €*Stand: 27.04.24 04:20
	Verfügbar - 3-5 Werktage Lieferzeit	225,66 €*Stand: 27.04.24 03:06
	Lagernd im Versandlager - Lieferzeit 2-5 Werktage	228,29 €*Stand: 26.04.24 23:50

*Alle Preise inkl. gesetzl. MwSt zzgl. Versandkosten und ggf. Nachnahmegebühren, wenn nicht anders beschriebenmit freundlicher Unterstützung von geizhals.de