EVGA launches NU Audio Card

[HEXUS]

'Lifelike Audio' product created with custom components from Audio Note UK.

Read more.

[kalniel]

These components are installed on a high quality silver and gold plated multilayer PCB, with isolated dual-ground planes for analogue and digital circuitry, which I find reassuring.

Forgive the lack of knowledge, but why do you find that reassuring? Can you explain the significance and likely result of either having this or not? Thanks

[MajorZod]

These components are installed on a high quality silver and gold plated multilayer PCB, with isolated dual-ground planes for analogue and digital circuitry, which I find reassuring.

Forgive the lack of knowledge, but why do you find that reassuring? Can you explain the significance and likely result of either having this or not? Thanks

Reduces interference.

[mtyson]

I'm no expert but well designed ground plane isolation and connection routing on a PCB should reduce the likelihood of EMI, crosstalk, and ground loop noise issues.

[tinbin]

looks nice but do we really need sound cards in 2019 lol years since I used one....

[Zak33]

Forgive the lack of knowledge, but why do you find that reassuring? Can you explain the significance and likely result of either having this or not? Thanks

Digital signals can have quite noisey grounds -
https://www.analog.com/en/analog-dia...-grounded.html

Separate Analog and Digital Grounds

It is a fact of life that digital circuitry is noisy. Saturating logic, such as TTL and CMOS, draws large, fast current spikes from its supply during switching. Logic stages, with hundreds of millivolts (or more) of noise immunity, usually have little need for high levels of supply decoupling. On the other hand, analog circuitry is quite vulnerable to noise—on both power supply rails and grounds—so it is sensible to separate analog and digital circuitry to prevent digital noise from corrupting analog performance. Such separation involves separation of both ground returns and power rails—which can be inconvenient in a mixed-signal system.

I learned that recently

[Ttaskmaster]

looks nice but do we really need sound cards in 2019 lol years since I used one....

Yes.

I have an X99 board and the sound is good. Most of my friends have vastly superior kit to me, and their sound is good.
But all of them will exhibit noises like coil whine when you crank things up.
I'm the only one who doesn't use a soundcard or external DAC any more, which is simply because I prefer zero latency monitoring when I'm talking on my headset.

[Bagpuss]

looks nice but do we really need sound cards in 2019 lol years since I used one....

Your loss.

I can tell the difference immediately between my Sounblaster Z card and the on-board Realtek audio on my Asus Mobo especially when using my HyperX headphones.

[RonanH]

looks nice but do we really need sound cards in 2019 lol years since I used one....

Your loss.

I can tell the difference immediately between my Sounblaster Z card and the on-board Realtek audio on my Asus Mobo especially when using my HyperX headphones.

lol I have the exact same setup, was really surprised by the difference it made, first the sound card, then the headphones a little later.

[Gh0sty]

Its not going to be cheap.

EVGA said the card will cost $250 EVGA Elite Members will be able to buy it for $200.

That said it does have swappable OP-amps on it for the headphones and line out. Modders are already looking at upgrading it with these.
https://www.bursonaudio.com/products/supreme-sound-opamp-v6/

With the bitrates it does I can see it appealing to folks that make music on their PC's.

[kalniel]

Its not going to be cheap.

EVGA said the card will cost $250 EVGA Elite Members will be able to buy it for $200.

That said it does have swappable OP-amps on it for the headphones and line out. Modders are already looking at upgrading it with these.
https://www.bursonaudio.com/products...ound-opamp-v6/

With the bitrates it does I can see it appealing to folks that make music on their PC's.

I'm scratching my head a bit. The OP275 that comes with the NU costs about $3 at most. The one you link is $70, yet has 50x the distortion of the OP275?

Regardless, it doesn't really matter to those of us making music on our PCs since it's playback not creation, and I've got a hifi for the DAC these days.

[3dcandy]

Still has RGB lighting. Surely that won't help with the crosstalk et al

[g8ina]

Even *I* have a small USB DAC, but I wouldnt mind having one of these.

I have a small collection of DSF files, which really do need a damm fine DAC to cope. My little 12 quid USB Line Out DAC is OK, but this would make a considerable different, or so I believe

[Friesiansam]

I wonder how this will compare, for stereo music playback rather than game sound, with the Asus Xonar Essence STX? Not that I can think of any reason to replace mine.

[Strawb77]

Still has RGB lighting. Surely that won't help with the crosstalk et al

my thoughts exactly, but it does say in the article `(RGB Can be disabled "for strict audiophile performance").`, so they have at least thought of that.

why must everything have rgb on it in the first place though?

[Zak33]

my experience of sound cards over 20 years is that good ones are always way better than onboard.

but that the drivers in Win updates in particular Win10 are a major league pain in the .... rear end

I've had some utterly awesome sound cards AND if we're honest like a good amp and speakers, in hardware terms....they just work. But for DRIVERS, they need permanently updating and it breaks my heart when they stop working.

Before the turn of the millenia I had a Hercules 7.1. Great card, then an Audigy (great in games, average in music)

In 2003... some of you weren't born in 2003
https://forums.hexus.net/consumer-el...ion-7-1-a.html
M - Audio Revolution 7.1 - utterly amazed me

then by 2011 I was rocking a Razer Baraccuda which was excellent but not quite as good as the M-Audio... I found drivers for the old card and I used them a while. It was wicked BUT the games surround sound was failing miserably and even stereo wasn't good in games

https://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware...ndows-7-a.html

then I went to Win 10 in 2016 and I had a mare
https://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware...mp-10-now.html

so now, simply because my heart cant bear the pain, and the clock on the wall says I simply don't have the time to spend days arsing around with computers to make them work..I'm on-board sound again

Shame isn't it?