Keeping an eye on this, having issues with my Z97 classy's audio, looks sick.

GGTV-Jon

MSim

GGTV-Jon
True.
I would imagine trying to conform to content protection and paying royalties for the different formats would be a challenge for anyone dipping a toe into trying to provide something more then the basics on a moterhboard
 
This product is not marketed to people wanting their 11.2 theater realistic sound () it is for people that want cleaner sound for their headsets without having to revert to something like https://www.bursonaudio.com/products/play/
Which if you look at it it is still hooked into the system via usb
 
Has anyone seen a price mentioned for this yet?

One website said it will cost $200 for evga elite members and $250 for non-elite members. The pictures of the software on the product page look very basic.    
 
If you want cleaner sound, wouldn't it be better to have a external system. People always talk about it's not good to have the sound card inside a PC.
 
 

If it is in the $250 range then it is right there with that Burson Audio Play unit I linked
 
Here is my take on it in regards to being in the case.
 
Like the Burson Audio Play and any external dedicated sound device that is connected via USB you run the chance of introduced ground noise on the USB line. Yes it can be mitigated with USB ground loop devices or messing with adding / removing the ground splices in the cable but that is a bit of work.
 
With an PCIe slot device your data is passed through the PCIe interface. Yes the EVGA Nu Audio still has USB in the data path but it is all on the same PCB = it has the same power / ground source as the rest of the audio components.
 
On the software front - for me at least it seems like they could cut half the features out that most of the audio software guys put in and I would still be happy. They pack way too much extra junk features in there (looking at the Creative Sound Blaster software for the audio on my X299 Dark)

What's wrong with having more features, you don't have to use all of them. Having features that are geared towards select things, it helps to attract more customers.  Scout mode option is nice to have for online FPS gamers, supporting Dolby Digital, DTS etc, that would be nice for media PC people.
 
 
 
 

I was thinking it was just a different capacitor, like the red ones

MSim

GGTV-Jon

MSim

GGTV-Jon
True.
I would imagine trying to conform to content protection and paying royalties for the different formats would be a challenge for anyone dipping a toe into trying to provide something more then the basics on a moterhboard
 
This product is not marketed to people wanting their 11.2 theater realistic sound () it is for people that want cleaner sound for their headsets without having to revert to something like https://www.bursonaudio.com/products/play/
Which if you look at it it is still hooked into the system via usb
 
Has anyone seen a price mentioned for this yet?

One website said it will cost $200 for evga elite members and $250 for non-elite members. The pictures of the software on the product page look very basic.    
 
If you want cleaner sound, wouldn't it be better to have a external system. People always talk about it's not good to have the sound card inside a PC.
 
 

If it is in the $250 range then it is right there with that Burson Audio Play unit I linked
 
Here is my take on it in regards to being in the case.
 
Like the Burson Audio Play and any external dedicated sound device that is connected via USB you run the chance of introduced ground noise on the USB line. Yes it can be mitigated with USB ground loop devices or messing with adding / removing the ground splices in the cable but that is a bit of work.
 
With an PCIe slot device your data is passed through the PCIe interface. Yes the EVGA Nu Audio still has USB in the data path but it is all on the same PCB = it has the same power / ground source as the rest of the audio components.
 
On the software front - for me at least it seems like they could cut half the features out that most of the audio software guys put in and I would still be happy. They pack way too much extra junk features in there (looking at the Creative Sound Blaster software for the audio on my X299 Dark)

What's wrong with having more features, you don't have to use all of them. Having features that are geared towards select things, it helps to attract more customers.  Scout mode option is nice to have for online FPS gamers, supporting Dolby Digital, DTS etc, that would be nice for media PC people.
 
 
 
 

I agree with you in some sense, but also remember audiophiles love purity and lack of bloat. Don't want anything in my signal chain getting in the way!

Dima4235
I have SACD and high res. FLAC albums in surround. Are you planning to release a 5.1 or 7.1 version of this card?

Unless you have the super rare SACD capable disc drive that was released by Sony in the 2000s, no SACD can be played on a computer. To get the DSD files off of an SACD, both multichannel and stereo gotta use the PS3 Other OS extraction method.

But if you do indeed have DSD files on your computer, as I do, the card will output the stereo DSF files via the stereo analog outs just fine. You won't be able to output any form of lossless multichannel via the Toslink out, including DSD and your lossless FLACs. Although the lack of multichannel analog outs is a limitation, the need for such connections is such a fringe case to the point where I don't blame EVGA for not including them. Not many people have lossless multichannel audio on their computer, and even fewer will use their PCs to drive their playback.

jeffswitzer
Any thoughts on the pcie to usb bridge in this? From what I understand they went this direction because stable drivers are already out there for usb. I've heard that usb isn't the best for audio though, but don't know why.

External USB DACs can have issues with noise introduced due to ground loops. No idea if this would apply to a pcie sound card.

dasniper
Are the Outputs individually addressable? Can I output different applications to the RCA than the 6.3mm headphone jack or Optical?

I use a Asus Xonar sound card with Klispch Ultra 5.1 setup. I was wondering if it is possible to rig up a solution to be able to use this card?

The headphone jack flopping around at 0:27 isn't confidence inspiring.  You can see that the jack is designed to have a nut securing it, but EVGA omitted it for whatever reason.
 

 
^clicky click
 

Dima4235
I have SACD and high res. FLAC albums in surround. Are you planning to release a 5.1 or 7.1 version of this card?

You can use 5.1 with Optical cable.
Good 5.1 speakers are better than moderate 7.1.
SBZxR no 7.1 as well.
 
Only for 200-300 and up to 500$ is better to invest in 2 solid Active speakers than 5.1 for same money.
Simply quality of sound per speaker is better, you need to pay 1000$ to get same quality as pair of speakers who cost 250-300$. 
 
This is right choice, EVGA Sound Card and this small speakers. Sound great, bass and treble are not weak, they are small. They have and Toslink Input, Bluetooth and USB, 3.5mm jack.
 
https://vanatoo.com/shop/speakers/transparent-zero/
 

 
You don't need nothing more for gaming and music on desktop PC.
Speakers are not cheap, but they worth... They are available only in USA, that's bad.

I want to see some independent reviews of this card as I'm very excited over it.  My asus xonar d2x is 10 years old now with no official driver support in w10 so I'm looking around at my options as its been the best sound card I've had to date.

I'm still using a Xonar Essence STX with Dolby Headphone. Will this be doing something like Dolby Headphone?
My audio card is a dinosaur, but it still beats both new on-board audio and current add-on cards. I'm stuck with old third-party drivers.

mattman657
... DD Live is basically the equivalent of Dolby Prologic II which takes a stereo signal and upmixes to a 5.1 signal, except DD Live is built for PCs. Taking a PC audio source, converting it to DD 5.1, and outputting it via Toslink. ...

No, DDL is not like that.  DDL is AC3.  True multi-channel, but lossy-compressed into available bandwidth.  You must have a DDL encoder (software) available.  AC3 is so old now that all its patents expired a year or two ago.
 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Digital
 
 bonus stuff --
 
forums.evga.com/FindPost/2909180
 
 From
 
(wikipedia, look up "S/PDIF")  since link was zapped
 
   we have
 
S/PDIF is based on the AES3 interconnect standard.[3] S/PDIF can carry two channels of uncompressed PCM audio or compressed 5.1/7.1 surround sound (such as DTS audio codec); it cannot support lossless surround formats that require greater bandwidth.[4] 
 
/ / / /
 
Notice the ... compressed ... part.  Truly odd that nu makes a big deal of the electricals but then shorts it with the limited channels.  It is a non-starter for many like me because of two channels.  Ah, right, next year it will be 8 channels.  You can always upgrade.  Maybe if it's a cheap card.  It's not.  It's a glamour card, for those with more money than sense.  But it's stuck at two channels.  That's ridiculous.
 
Smoke and mirrors.  This is not like a video card where performance is real - where the measured differences are easy to see.  It's not easy to fool people in what they see.  You can easily fool people in what they hear - they don't have a clue to start so you feed them bull and they buy it.  Anything this nu card does is essentially what you already have, only a 2-channel version.  I could go on if you want me to.  I suspect you don't.

"Not many people have lossless multichannel audio on their computer, and even fewer will use their PCs to drive their playback."
 
But everyone uses Mutlichannel for gaming etc. I would have foregone the toslink for an HDMI output. I only use toslink when I don't
have any other choice.
 
The HDMI out would cover any issues for Mutlichannel and allow output back through an amp for what ever you want to playback wise 
regardless of the format

I’m interested in how this card compares to the new Creative AE-9.

FloppyDrive
I'm still using a Xonar Essence STX with Dolby Headphone. Will this be doing something like Dolby Headphone?
My audio card is a dinosaur, but it still beats both new on-board audio and current add-on cards. I'm stuck with old third-party drivers.

Are you using the Uni drivers from MaxedTech?  I'm using them with my xonar d2x which is even older than your card.