So go grab your favorite drink (preferably coffee with milk), have a seat, and stay for awhile...this is going to take some time to explain.
 
The most money I've spent on an amplifier is a $500 Topping DX7s headphone amplifier after having some nice Christmas money left over. I plugged my Focal Clear headphones in and I said to myself, "So I guess this is what being an audiophile sounds like." You see I've tried nearly all of them: The Sound Blaster Z (which I managed to kill a few years ago lol), the ZXr, AE-5, the externals like the E5 (which is great as a sound "Swiss Army knife"), G5x, and even the new Super X-Fi. Oh, and the Xonar DX (RIP two Xonars). And so far my Topping DX7s was definitely the best in audio no doubt. Nothing else I had was close. In detail, imaging, sound staging, midrange...just...wow. The Topping toppled everything I had, even a similar-priced NAD D 1050 headphone amp that I managed to buy cheap used. 
 
Then early January there was a new sound card on the block (Sound BlasterX AE-9, what's that? Lol). A "Nu Audio" from....EVGA? Seriously? Naaaah that can't be right. It was built in partnership with a company named Audio Note. A company whose gear is so expensive, you can't even really see the prices (let alone buy) online; you have to meet a specialist who sells the gear. 
 
Woah. Okay. Maybe they're serious. As serious as that sound room that the EVGA CEO Andrew Han has.
 
A week ago I was going to write this review as an "ALL-OUT BATTLE ROYALE OF PC SOUND CARDS" or something like that. But you know what? I'll wrap it up in a paragraph. This is the best sound - um....sorry the best AUDIO card I ever have heard as almost none of my other gear that I still have (minus the SBZ and the Xonars) could keep up in raw sound quality. Yeah, I tested them ALL. It did not matter what genre of music I put through Foobar2000 (pop, rock, classical, hip hop, EDM - I have a strange taste of music). Treble was clearer, midrange was captivating, bass punches without nuclear explosions, sound stage was lively, transparency was like activating super sonic hearing...All the buzz words audiophiles love to throw around to sound smart...The Nu Audio basically outperformed them on all of those aspects. And I love how the drivers are so clean and so simple. Sure there are less features and less plugs, but a lot of them in my opinion, just did NOT work (I mean does anyone use "Scout Mode"?). Plus I sacrificed 5.1 audio awhile back in my setup as I found myself wanting excellent stereo over surround that may sound okay or just good enough. So basically: Less is more. 
 
But you just read that I wrote almost none of my other gear. The only real contender that competes is the Topping DX7s. 
 
Before we continue I should mention that the Topping DX7s has something that puts it at an...unfair advantage: a 4-Pin XLR balanced output. With that XLR balanced output it opened up my Focal Clear headphones like I never heard them before (even after spending five months with them with a typical unbalanced TRS plug). I decided I was going to give the Topping that unfair advantage first during my tests. So it would seem like it should have the chops to be ahead of the EVGA Nu Audio card right? Well...I can't say for sure...
 
The Topping has more bass (surprising) and vocals and the midrange can be more discerned. The Nu Audio can provide the same detail but seems...flatter. Almost more two-dimensional. But the Nu Audio's lighter bass makes way for more detailed treble. Make no mistake it still packs a punch but it just doesn't boom like the Topping. The Topping providing a bit more of a "musical" approach with more bass and excellent midrange. While the Nu Audio gives more details and sounds a tad open for a somewhat more "analytical" approach. It felt like a photo finish of a race and I couldn't tell which one was ahead. 
 
So here I am. A disappointed individual. Something that I bought for $500 is more or less rivaled by a $250 device. So I should probably just jettison my Topping DX7s out to the highest bidder right? Woah, not so fast! There's one other reason why I'll keep around both and also adds to my disappointment. The Topping DX7s is an external device and allows me to use with just about any device that can take USB. I even plugged my iPhone and Note 9 to it just for the heck of it. And it worked with both of them. The Nu Audio is an internal sound card trapped in a metal and tempered glass prison that is my PC. I even read that some believe the Nu Audio is actually a USB device that has a PCI-E interface. The market of audiophiles and even PC owners have moved on and away from the internal sound cards (and Creative has been NO HELP AT ALL to keep people's audio devices inside the PC). So why would you confine this product to a PCI-E interface?
 
Imagine if the Nu audio was the same size, same shape, but instead of the PCI-E main board it had a sheet of metal at the bottom with a USB-C connection replacing the PCI-E pins. I think audiophiles and PC owners would have eaten this thing up. I think they would have sold out on the first batch. I would take this thing EVERYWHERE! It almost feels like a missed opportunity to take the music lover's market by storm because I think by sound quality alone I think it is worth $250! EVGA has the right idea but I think may have stopped itself short of truly making a product that's for the people in the market for audio gear today. There is a reason why people look at sound cards and go "Pfffft, it's a sound card. No one needs those anymore because Mobo audio is decent and if you want to be an audiophile ye must have a DAC." Maybe even five years ago the Nu Audio card would not feel out of place. But today, I'm finding it hard. So folks at EVGA, I did my part in paying for one of these Nu devices (yes that's a pun). You've got the right ideas, the right approach of great audio and ditch all that other DSP bloat that other companies *cough*Creative*cough* like to market like crazy. All you need is to make this an external USB device. Oh I'd certainly pay more for a 2.5mm TRRS balanced output (XLR preferred).  Maybe I'll try not to buy any more audio gear until you get that done so I can stop disappointing myself! 
 
Postscript notes:
- For the crazed PC builders like me my build has: Core i7 9700k, MSI MEG Z390 ACE Mobo, 32GB Corsair RAM at 3GHz, 1TB PCIe SSD, two random HDDs, RTX 2080 ti, Corsair RMx 1000w PSU, all encased in a Cooler Master H500M case, oh and don't forget RGB out the wazoo
- For those curious, yes I even tried the Mobo's audio. Sounds similar to my SB ZXr. It is the best mobo audio I've heard too, for what little that says. 
- I did run into some interference with my RTX 2080 ti when I had the Nu Audio in the PCIE slot beneath the video card. It doesn't help the stupid RTX coil whines. When I put the Nu Audio down to the last PCIE X1 slot though the coil whine was no longer going to the audio output.  Be sure to install it as far away from the video card as possible. 
- Maybe it's the CM H500M case and the MSI mobo's plastic shrouds but I had to remove two PCI slot covers and angle the card about 45 degrees before I could get the Nu Audio into position to insert the card into the slot. The RCA jacks are very close to the edge of the bracket so they got in the way if I tried to go straight in.
- I didn't hear any difference in sound between the RCA jacks and the 6.3mm jack. Nice. 
- And be sure to check that GamersNexus video on YouTube where Steve Burke tours Andrew Han's audio room. Definitely hardcore. 

notfordman
Great write up, quite detailed. And your first post. 

+1

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! :D
 

EVGATech_LeeM
Out of curiosity, did you try running the L/R RCA to the Topping? 

The Topping DX7s only has digital inputs so if I were to run the RCA outputs on the Nu Audio to the Topping I'd probably need an analog to optical output converter box. 
 
That did jog a few memories I forgot to include in the initial review.
 
- I did wire up the optical outputs from the Nu Audio to the Topping. It was quite funny. It was like a bass boost that Dr. Dre may or may not approve. Why not approve? The mids and treble were still present, Lol. Treble was a bit sharper as well (compared to the Topping by itself on USB). 
- I should make it clear that I did use the Focal Clear headphones in most of my tests (sorry for trying to be phunny). I did do some A/B runs with a Mrspeakers Aeon Flow Open and the Sennheiser HD600. Everything I said on the first post still applies. 
- Even with the recent v0.1.1.0 driver update I noticed that the speaker output sound filter resets to the default Accoustic Sound setting. I know I powered my computer off last night with the Harmonic Sound setting selected. 
 

Scout mode is helpful in some games. In Rust it can help you hear if any pesky door campers are trying to sneak up on your base. 
 
Did you play around with sample rate and bit depth between each sound solution? Wish you went into more details on the testing on each sound card. I know Creative AE-5 if you don't use Direct mode, it won't use the good DAC.

Have you tried listening to any songs recorded in 432Hz on youtube?
MrBtskidz
The432HZ Guy
 
 
 

I agree, if EVGA comes out with an external version, I'd grab it immediately.

On the Win

MSim

GGTV-Jon

sovereign73811
 
Imagine if the Nu audio was the same size, same shape, but instead of the PCI-E main board it had a sheet of metal at the bottom with a USB-C connection replacing the PCI-E pins. I think audiophiles and PC owners would have eaten this thing up. I think they would have sold out on the first batch. I would take this thing EVERYWHERE! It almost feels like a missed opportunity to take the music lover's market by storm because I think by sound quality alone I think it is worth $250! EVGA has the right idea but I think may have stopped itself short of truly making a product that's for the people in the market for audio gear today. There is a reason why people look at sound cards and go "Pfffft, it's a sound card. No one needs those anymore because Mobo audio is decent and if you want to be an audiophile ye must have a DAC." Maybe even five years ago the Nu Audio card would not feel out of place. But today, I'm finding it hard. So folks at EVGA, I did my part in paying for one of these Nu devices (yes that's a pun). You've got the right ideas, the right approach of great audio and ditch all that other DSP bloat that other companies *cough*Creative*cough* like to market like crazy. All you need is to make this an external USB device. Oh I'd certainly pay more for a 2.5mm TRRS balanced output (XLR preferred).  Maybe I'll try not to buy any more audio gear until you get that done so I can stop disappointing myself! 
 

 
sovereign73811 I was just rereading your great post above and this section got the old noggin turning, my take / thoughts on this -
 
With an external device such as your Topping DX7s you are running the sound through whatever the source device has for an USB controller and depending on power sources of connected devices you can (and it does happen) have issues with grounding loop noise along with having to rely on making your product work with a broader range of USB controllers.
Wheres with an internal device they can tailor the USB controller and everything else down stream to work as a cohesive unit along with controlling the power delivery = the greatness that is the EVGA NU Audio sound card
In Audio the cleaner the power the cleaner the sound

We have seen reports of NU Audio picking up coil whine from other hardware in the case. That's why audiophiles have moved to external Amp & DAC setups. 
 
 

 
Do they not then sometimes run into ground loop noise over USB?
 
I think that no matter what, someone is going to have some kind of an issue no matter how hard a manufacturer tries to cover all the bases.
 
As long as they keep striving to improve things can only get better
 
I say this half joking - for those with coil whine on their GPU they need to put a full cover water block with a copper core on it - cooling that VRM down and the block acting as an EM shield

I am not hearing any internal noise through my Nu audio card.
 
Although i did have to change the 3.5mm adaptor as the one included is rubbish would only take a slight amount of movement an you would have to nudge it again to get sound from both channels.
 
That and microphone stopped being picked up last night, 3 restarts dident come back, taking out and putting back in, nothing, checked mic on other pc, worked fine. Did windows trouble shooting on the card all came back after it said it had set things to defualt again. which it already was, so not sure what was going on there.

Naginooh
Scratch that. yes i do hear noise through the audio card. slight noise while idle. but if i run anything that works my gpu i can hear that : /

Are you using slot 4 or 6 for the NU?

MSim
Have you tried listening to any songs recorded in 432Hz on youtube?

 
 Well...I'll keep trying because I'm not sure if I heard a difference. Maybe I need to play them backwards lol.

GGTV-Jon

sovereign73811
 
Imagine if the Nu audio was the same size, same shape, but instead of the PCI-E main board it had a sheet of metal at the bottom with a USB-C connection replacing the PCI-E pins. I think audiophiles and PC owners would have eaten this thing up. I think they would have sold out on the first batch. I would take this thing EVERYWHERE! It almost feels like a missed opportunity to take the music lover's market by storm because I think by sound quality alone I think it is worth $250! EVGA has the right idea but I think may have stopped itself short of truly making a product that's for the people in the market for audio gear today. There is a reason why people look at sound cards and go "Pfffft, it's a sound card. No one needs those anymore because Mobo audio is decent and if you want to be an audiophile ye must have a DAC." Maybe even five years ago the Nu Audio card would not feel out of place. But today, I'm finding it hard. So folks at EVGA, I did my part in paying for one of these Nu devices (yes that's a pun). You've got the right ideas, the right approach of great audio and ditch all that other DSP bloat that other companies *cough*Creative*cough* like to market like crazy. All you need is to make this an external USB device. Oh I'd certainly pay more for a 2.5mm TRRS balanced output (XLR preferred).  Maybe I'll try not to buy any more audio gear until you get that done so I can stop disappointing myself! 
 

 
sovereign73811 I was just rereading your great post above and this section got the old noggin turning, my take / thoughts on this -
 
With an external device such as your Topping DX7s you are running the sound through whatever the source device has for an USB controller and depending on power sources of connected devices you can (and it does happen) have issues with grounding loop noise along with having to rely on making your product work with a broader range of USB controllers.
Wheres with an internal device they can tailor the USB controller and everything else down stream to work as a cohesive unit along with controlling the power delivery = the greatness that is the EVGA NU Audio sound card
In Audio the cleaner the power the cleaner the sound

 
I see where you're going on that. And I do wonder how they would handle power delivery on USB 3. That's assuming we're going with the pure portable design as I was implying where there's only a USB C port for everything. Of course they could put in a separate power supply but that would make it bigger, heavier, and probably more expensive.

bcavnaugh
On the Win

Thanks! :D


 
 
I should also mention that since the latest driver v0.1.2.3 my card picks up some noise. Seems to be worst when something is loading. When my PC is in idle or just has music/video playing it seems fine. 

TP1125
Does the nu audio card have something like creative alchemy for older games?
 
I want to replace my AE-5 after reading reviews about NU Audio. I am also getting tired of creatives bloated software. It's just to much crap we don't need 

Nope, the Nu Audio card has no support for the older EAX/A3D audio. How often do you play those older games?