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EVGA Nu Audio Card Review - Interference - FIXED

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ryanmozo
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2019/02/05 16:40:34 (permalink)
First and foremost the EVGA Nu Audio Card is great! I would honestly recommend it for anyone to upgrade their existing speaker set into a higher-grade sound experience. For my set up, I have audio output via RCA to a Sony STR-DE897 Receiver, to which there is a 5.1 Dahlquist surround sound hooked up. The audio card itself is installed into the EVGA Z390 FTW motherboard.
 
Pros:
- Easy to install
- Sound quality is great
- LED accent is a good touch, not overbearing
- Ability to upgrade in the future
- Customer support is fantastic as well
 
Cons:
- Software is a little confusing to understand at first!
- Interference!! I have a vertically-mounted GPU with a riser cable, and at first I had installed the audio card in the PCIe_x1 slot right above the main PCIe_x16 slot the graphics card is installed into. In doing so, there would be an intermittent popping/static noise that would last one second, then goes away. Then a minute later it comes on again, then goes away. After troubleshooting the speakers, receiver, cables, power source, and power cables, I finally came to the realization that it was interference from a component within the build. Installing the audio card in another PCIe_x1 slot lower on the motherboard got rid of the interference by about 95% (if I listen really closely I can hear it sometimes). It's possible that the audio card needs an extra shielding to protect from interference, unless the interference comes from the motherboard itself. Maybe a backplate?
- Odd placement of chassis audio pins (don't know the exact name, sorry). I understand that the internal layout of the audio card takes precedence but it seems weird to have the HD Audio plug for the chassis be on the top of the card (facing you). This would make it extremely difficult for cable management.
 
Overall: Installing the EVGA Nu Audio Card was a breeze, just plug into the PCIe_x1 slot, connect to SATA power, download the software and you're ready to go. As far as sound quality goes, I haven't had any audio card produce as high quality audio through to my speakers as I have with this card. It's just amazing, and is turning me into an audiophile. What's great is that in the future you can upgrade your card through changing the OP-AMPs (I just need to learn what these are haha!). I would love to have seen a (possibly black) backplate that would cover all of the soldering and product stickers. I think (I'm not 100% sure though) this would also help with interference, because as of now I believe having little shielding on the back of the card is what led to my set up having interference in the first place. The interference was driving me crazy, as I was testing it from video games to youtube videos to music files, but now that I've gotten it down to a manageable level from switching the position of the card, it's much better.
 
Hope this helps anyone who is thinking of getting the card!
 
Edit: I have the EVGA RTX 2080Ti FTW3, I forgot to mention that in the review! My power supply is an EVGA Supernova 1000W T2. I think that's the only relevant hardware pieces :D
post edited by ryanmozo - 2019/03/13 11:09:14

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    CyberbrainPC
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    Re: EVGA Nu Audio Card Review - Interference 2019/02/07 10:52:34 (permalink)
    Nice review and build! I don't think i've seen a video card mounted right there before. 

    Have you tried temporarily creating more shielding (non conductive) for the audio card to see if that eliminates it completely? I'd be curious if that helped. Is the Sata power shared with anything else? I ran a dedicated one straight to power supply to reduce any noise chance. 
     


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    ryanmozo
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    Re: EVGA Nu Audio Card Review - Interference 2019/02/08 07:25:57 (permalink)
    Thanks soo much! It's this awesome vertical mounting bracket that came with the CoolerMaster C700M case.
     
    To be honest I was afraid of trying that out. I'm not an expert at audio equipment and electrical stuff so I was too afraid of shorting something out if I had tried to do my own jerry-rigged shielding! As for the power, I ran a dedicated SATA power to the audio card too. And also my computer has a dedicated outlet to the power from the house so there shouldn't be too much going on in terms of power interference (I don't think).
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    ryanmozo
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    Re: EVGA Nu Audio Card Review - Interference 2019/03/13 11:07:18 (permalink)
    I wanted to update my own post (not sure if anyone would see this but oh well) because after troubleshooting the interference I had mentioned earlier, I finally found the culprit!
     
    In another PCIe_x1 slot on my motherboard I had a TP-LINK AC 1300 Wireless Dual Band adapter slotted in and after removing this hardware piece from my build completely, poof! The "interference" I struggled with before disappeared and I haven't heard it since. If anyone else who has noticed interference and you have a wireless card installed, check that! At least in my case it worked, and I know for sure it had nothing to do with the Nu Audio card. 
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