This is a review of EVGAs latest to date NU Audio card.
Let's start with a tiny bit of background about me when I got this card. I am a bit of an audiophile but not to an extreme. I refuse to use wireless earphones and sacrifice the clarity and bass provided by my 1more Quad drivers. I also replaced all of my car speakers to JBL speakers and installed a new headunit with quality drivers to match. When it was convenient a set of Klipsch R15m bookshelf speakers along with a Klipsch SW10 10in subwoofer made their way into my possession, driven by a Yamaha receiver. This was coupled to my PC via the optical connection off of my highend motherboard. The sound quality was great, and I was pretty happy as it was until I took a close look at the NU Audio card. Fast forward a couple months and I am opening a brand new audio card. Just like EVGAs graphics cards, they made this card with NU Audio to have a very rugged and sturdy composition that expresses quality. Sizing is manageable and looks are symmetrical as well as modern. Installing the card was sadly not as appealing as looking at it because it requires a sata power connector which as most of you know is always a bear for cable management. Luckily for EVGA that is where the negatives stop, because after installing the card and running hard wire, the resulting sound blew me away. I got to achieve much more clarity in the lows and highs that I did not even know were missing. The optical output of my MOBO did these Klipsch speakers no justice, but with the help of EVGA and NU Audio I can now experience a purer sound.
Summing up these points,
Cons: Sata power! Could it be a four or a six or an eight pin even would have been a lot easier in terms of cable management. On that note I would actually like a full PCIE 16x card just for power delivery
Pros: Potentially unmatched sound quality. Your expected EVGA quality. Styling to match.
My conclusion is that if you are any sort of audiophile and do not have the most constrained budget, definitely make room in your budget for this card! You may not want to hear music that is not driven through it...