Scarlet-Tech
When I used 5.1 surround (4 drivers, not 5) you could clesrly distinguish above and below. Saying you only have 2 ears would beg to question why we have surround sound and can distinguish where the sound is coming from..

I did not say they didn't work, just that is is a non needed gimmick. You can get better surround from HRTF than you can a multi driver headphone. The reason for 5.1/7.1 is to get sound direction in a large environment (and you only get proper directionality in a small area of the room). When you have headphones on, there is no environment for the sound to be attenuated to give you the audio clues of where the sound is coming from (in fact I suspect the multi driver headphones have to use HRTF anyway because of this). The reason you can tell the direction of a sound is your brain does some amazing sound processing, it only has 2 sample points. Your brain figures this out based on changes in the sound waves due to the environment, your head, and ear shape. With headphones on there simply isn't that data for your brain to use (no environment, no head shape, severely limited ear shape interaction), so we have to simulate those things via HRTF: https://en.wikipedia.org/...ated_transfer_function
 
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_sound_reconstruction "Headphones introduce enough sound sources for a listener to experience 3D sound with directionality"
 
Go listen to some binaural recordings on some 2 speaker headphones, will blow your mind. E.g.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA

AMP_US

MSim

AMP_US
Where is it? Jacob? EVGA? Sound card? Where?

My guess is Q2 of 2018, if were lucky. 
 
 

:(
 
IMO with the influx of Sennheiser HD650 owners from Massdrop, now would have been a perfect time to announce something. I do really hope EVGA take a careful approach to this product. "Just another PCIE sound card" that doesn't move the ball forward is not going to cut it. IMO an external USB DAC/AMP combo (lets say good S/N ratio up to ~300ohms) with good 7.1 emulation would be the ideal product. Anything above $200 will have to be serious good as people in this market will just be a Schiit Magni/Modi combo and be happy.
 
IMO the external part is critical so it can be mobile and work with laptops. PCIE cards are really a silly solution to the problem of "I need better sound quality". The PCIE interface has no advantage.

I agree, they should take a careful approach when making sound cards. Just wish EVGA would stop showing off products if it's going to take them 2-3+ years before we see it on the market. EVGA been working on a keyboard (no RGB lights) for like 3 years now and still no release date. EVGA sound cards will probably take just as long, by that time people have given up on it.
 

I'm not sure that I'd want to try an EVGA sound card.  The biggest gripe people seem to have with Creative and Sound Blaster is their drivers / software...  Considering the amount of bugs and lack of attention Precision X seems to get I could see it being as bad if not worse.

WackyWRZ
I'm not sure that I'd want to try an EVGA sound card.  The biggest gripe people seem to have with Creative and Sound Blaster is their drivers / software...  Considering the amount of bugs and lack of attention Precision X seems to get I could see it being as bad if not worse.

I don't see evga making it's own custom chip for a PCI-E sound card, that would be expensive for a small company to do. My guess is they will use another company audio chip like C-Media and just re-skin the software for it. Corsair uses C-media chip for it's USB headset. HTOMEGA uses c-media on it's sound cards.   
The DAC/AMP they will probably leave it up to Audio Note engineers design and mfg for evga.
 
 
 

WackyWRZ
 
I'd completely agree with you there, but I would hope (expect) that they would at least put some effort into executing some exclusive features above a "stock" experience.  If they just slap stock stuff together and slap a skin on it there seems to be less added value but to your point less problems. 
 
I consider EVGA to have "premium" products (with a premium price) so I would expect premium features even more important when high-end MB manufacturers keep stepping up the onboard audio on their boards.  I seem to remember some boards even coming with swappable op-amp chips...  This I consider to be "enthusiast" level stuff where you can do customization.  Maybe they could make an external box that had a tube amp (with swappable tubes) in it - that'd be cool AND different!

Will have to wait and see if evga brings us a premium product or just a premium price. 

Looks like EVGA will not launch Sound Card.
Maybe is competition to strong. Creative launch killers with SBZ series.
 
Tomorrow I upgrade from SBZ to SBZxR.
I found better model new for 120 euro, I sell mine for 60 and upgrade cost me 60 euro.
I don't expect to hear difference before some better speakers but people say I will hear.
We will see. 

Sound cards could cause problem to people same as graphic cards if sound is bad or drivers.
People complain on ASUS cards even on new series.
In one moment I thought to try STRIX Soar before I hear complains.
CREATIVE is same, people say bad technical support, they had one series with Recon3D and Core3D processor and they were bad and problematic and didn't justify their price. Than CREATIVE launch Sound Blaster Z series and that was success and now last 4 years people use them.
They rear become outdated, problem could be difference on motherboards. Because of that people can't use PCI sound cards.
I think if someone pay 500+ for graphic cards than worth once in 10 years to pay 150-200$ for sound.
SBZxR is proven hardware, now if show up something new need time at least 6 months for sound card to flaws show up and people to see is it worth.
If EVGA launch something good they will sell them very nice. Only card should be closed and protected from dust as SBZ series.
 
 

Sometimes things don't work out for one reason or another. When EVGA feels they have a valid and ready product for market only then will they release it.