Firstly, I'm not an audiophile. I do not know nor have I taken the time to fully understand every term and nuance within the audio enthusiast community. I'm not going to provide measurements taken with fancy equipment, comparisons between this product and other audio solutions in its category, nor will I be diving deeply into the hardware packed on to the device. So if you were looking for an in-depth analysis that would otherwise be provided by someone with that knowledge, then I don't want to waste your time. What I AM going to provide you is the experience of a consumer who:
- wanted to put high-end headphones to good use
- didn't already own a high-end audio solution
- wasn't interested in gaming features such as scout mode
- wasn't interested in Dolby Digital or surround sound
- has primarily relied on integrated sound for many years
- initially had a bad experience with this product
I'll get to the last bullet point later. First, lets cover the basics.
The card looks handsome sporting a matte gray shield on the front and RGB lighting along the side. On the back is the SATA connector for power. There is a front panel connector on the top of the card next to the RGB lighting as well if you are interested in running your front panel audio connections via the card. No back-plate though. That might be the one visual missing from the card that I would have liked to see.
The software provides basic functionality. Master volume control, headphone-amp volume control, mic and line-in volume control, and some very basic audio effects for both output and input. Surround, reverb, and compressor settings are available for output while volume stabilizer and noise reduction settings can be used for the input. You can also change the sample rate with a range from 16-bit 44100 all the way up to 32-bit 384000. There's no scout mode or any other gaming mode that you might normally find on something like a Creative Labs card.
So how does it sound? Super clean and crystal clear. Very detailed sound.
My first playback experience was with Aesop Rock over some ATH-ADG1x headphones. I started up the song Supercell and went about my business glancing through emails. I hadn't decided to bust out my high-end headphones and critically listen to any specific music just yet. I just wanted some music going while I glanced thru emails. But my attention was almost immediately pulled back to the music. It was impossible for me NOT to notice the sound separation and detail that had been absent all this time. How could I miss it? This is a song I've listened to hundreds of times. Only now it sounded... different... better even. I'm not dealing with a FLAC file or DSD playback. This is just a typical MP3 file. I closed my email. It was obvious that I wasn't going to be focusing on it anyway.
I swapped out my gaming headset for my sennheiser HD 600's. I must have spent hours in foobar2000 switching back-and-forth between my integrated sound solution and the NU Audio sound card. It was no contest. The NU Audio card provided a clearer, more detailed, and better separated sound experience. There was no hiss. No noise. No static in the background and the details etched into the music that had been previously lost were now audible.
That same holds true for gaming. Sennheiser 600's aren't really my ideal headset for gaming so I swapped out to my 58x's. The echoing bang of gunfire in Metro Exodus was more impactful and detailed. Environmental sounds in Shadow of the Tomb Raider were crisp and immersive. Subtleties I would have missed before were now legible to my ears. This was true of just about any title I fired up.
It's hard to put the audio experience into words. So I simply reverted back to using on-board audio figuring some of this had to be in my head. I spent $250 dollars on something and I WANT to hear a $250 dollar experience so I am. No. Just... no. The on-board audio blurs trebles together. It adds a low but noticeable hiss to the background of everything. And I'm not rolling on a cheap motherboard. This is a Zenith Extreme with an audio solution that was used as a marketing feature of the board. And it's a good audio solution. But it's not anywhere near the level of the NU Audio card.
"So how was it you had a bad experience then?" you might be asking. Well, I let my computer go into sleep mode. This caused the sound card to flake out on me. I won't take anymore space here to cover the problem. I have an entire post about it here:
https://forums.evga.com/NU-Audio-Card-Trouble-With-Standby-m2973063.aspx. I suggest you read through that post some. I was upset. This is not a cheap card. Sleep mode is pretty standard in my opinion and something that's going to be installed inside your computer should be capable of supporting it. But this whole kerfuffle really works to EVGA's credit in the end. Their support team reached out to me, both in the thread and via a PM. I was informed that this was a known issue and they wondered if I would be willing to help them put it to bed once and for all. I followed instructions provided to me, documented the problem, and installed drivers that would log hardware events from the sound card. With all that back and forth it became apparent to me that EVGA is taking their presence in this market rather seriously. In fact they proved they are—at least to me—seeing as how they managed to correct the issue with their latest drivers. I have not had one single issue since. Their customer support team as well as their technical team have done an outstanding job here. This is what fully sold me the product actually. I've had issues with other hardware in the past only to receive standard canned responses and limited support until months later there
might be an update that addresses your issue. EVGA went above and beyond. To me, that's just amazing.
I'd also wager that their customer support might be the separating feature between their product and cards like the Xonar Essence II or the more recent AE-9. Looking at the specs for the AE-9 I see a company once unchallenged in the market now adding features like swap-able op-amps to compete. While their spiffy new card might carry awesome specs and features, will their customer support go that extra mile for customers to get things right? Will their technical team reach out to those with issues to get real-world data to correct the problem? It might not get printed on the box with all the specs, but the folks at EVGA have and will.
TL;DR: You want a stereo experience that is leagues above on-board audio, have the cash for it, the room for it in your case, and are still reading this? Stop reading this and buy this card.
post edited by maddick19 - 2019/09/01 11:12:22