My rig is hooked up to the hifi and I play all music (and TV) this way. I've used a Xonar for years and it has been far better than on-board sound until now. But I'm planning a new build based on a gigabyte Z97x-sli which has the Realtek ALC1150 - so I'll try it without the xonar & see how it sounds. I'll be really interested to hear what it is like.