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EVGA Nu Audio Review after 15 years on motherboard audio

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kranrev
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2019/02/13 18:46:34 (permalink)
When I started PC gaming in the early 90s I learned to associate sound cards with driver nightmares and incompatibility. I had a succession of IDE, PCI Creative Soundblasters which, well, functioned. Mostly. When motherboard audio became widespread, decent sounding, and widely supported by software I mostly stuck with with the easy solutions. My most recent motherboard (Asus X99-A) even has relatively good quality sound.  Nevertheless I was aware that my Sennheiser HD650s were badly under driven by this setup.  I wasn't interested in the clutter of an external solution and most internal soundcards are dubious gamer-bait with surround sound fakery. That's why the Nu, a quality 2 channel solution, was so appealing to me. The Nu is exactly what I was looking for and it sounds fantastic.
 
Cons: For some reason it did not work on the bottom PCI express slot on my X99a so I had to reshuffle some cards.  Occasionally the card stops outputting audio when the PC wakes from sleep requiring a full reboot (some things never change with PC audio).  Hopefully that is a driver issue that will be addressed in the future.
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    bcavnaugh
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    Re: EVGA Nu Audio Review after 15 years on motherboard audio 2019/02/13 19:51:54 (permalink)
    kranrev
    When I started PC gaming in the early 90s I learned to associate sound cards with driver nightmares and incompatibility. I had a succession of IDE, PCI Creative Soundblasters which, well, functioned. Mostly. When motherboard audio became widespread, decent sounding, and widely supported by software I mostly stuck with with the easy solutions. My most recent motherboard (Asus X99-A) even has relatively good quality sound.  Nevertheless I was aware that my Sennheiser HD650s were badly under driven by this setup.  I wasn't interested in the clutter of an external solution and most internal soundcards are dubious gamer-bait with surround sound fakery. That's why the Nu, a quality 2 channel solution, was so appealing to me. The Nu is exactly what I was looking for and it sounds fantastic.
     
    Cons: For some reason it did not work on the bottom PCI express slot on my X99a so I had to reshuffle some cards.  Occasionally the card stops outputting audio when the PC wakes from sleep requiring a full reboot (some things never change with PC audio).  Hopefully that is a driver issue that will be addressed in the future.



    I bet it is because the PCIe Slot is Disabled because you are using the M.2 Slot.
    I will not be able to use that slot as well.
    Media Vision's Pro Audio Spectrum Card was my Last Add In Sound Card.
    post edited by bcavnaugh - 2019/02/13 19:55:33

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    Hoggle
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    Re: EVGA Nu Audio Review after 15 years on motherboard audio 2019/02/13 22:38:59 (permalink)
    What music or games have you been playing to test out the audio?

    Use an Associates Code & SAVE 5% - 10% on your purchase. Just click on the associates banner to save, or enter the associates code at checkout on your next purchase. If you choose to use my code I want to personally say "Thank You" for using it. 
     
     
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    kranrev
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    Re: EVGA Nu Audio Review after 15 years on motherboard audio 2019/02/14 06:26:40 (permalink)
    bcavnaugh


    I bet it is because the PCIe Slot is Disabled because you are using the M.2 Slot.
    I will not be able to use that slot as well.
    Media Vision's Pro Audio Spectrum Card was my Last Add In Sound Card.


    Exactly right, I had read about the slot being disabled when I researched upgrading to a M.2 boot drive and then promptly brain dumped that info.  It really is a shame that the disabled slot isn't one blocked off by my 2080ti. 
    Hoggle
    What music or games have you been playing to test out the audio?

    Battlefield One/5 as far as games. I've always found DICE games to have great audio engines and they sound fantastic with this card. I downloaded some lossless audio but I honestly can't tell much of a difference between them and 320kbps compressed audio, I'm not that much of an audiophile I guess.


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    MSim
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    Re: EVGA Nu Audio Review after 15 years on motherboard audio 2019/02/14 07:19:57 (permalink)
    Did you happen to change the default sample rate and bit depth for the onboard audio while testing it? I believe Realtek 1150 can support up to 24bit/192Hz. How to change it >>HERE<<. I think the default setting is 16bit/48Hz.
     
     
     
     


     
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