EVGA NU Audio Sound Card Unboxing & Preview

[badtaylorx]

TPU Please test it on a RYZEN platform as well. MANY audio cards do not work on Ryzen. I can confirm Asus STX II absolutely does NOT work with X390

 

[amit_talkin]

Sound card market saturated long ago. I haven't seen any sound card worth to upgrade from my Xonar Essence STX. Well, I am feeling sad about this.

 

[noel_fs]

Comparing to what. It is not for sure.

If it is above good, near perfect? No not.

For 200$ you can already get topping DX3 Pro lol.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Soundcard dont NEED external power, nor does it need any sort of rgb nonsense. PCIe x1 have 25W limit.

Where did you pull that out?

WIKI

All PCI express cards may consume up to 3 A at +3.3 V (9.9 W). The amount of +12 V and total power they may consume depends on the type of card:[15]:35–36[16]

• ×1 cards are limited to 0.5 A at +12 V (6 W) and 10 W combined.

It is only 6W in this case. There are like 25+ IC's on the board + a relay. Or are you insisting making a circus like Polaris did over abusing pcie slot power?

And please all get that through your skull, low noise, high PSRR can be gained only sacrificing a lot of power. The cascade starts with simple shunt regulator at the front, then splitting further to each knot, feeding their own device, cleaning up the voltage rail with each step. The more high end, uber high SNR must be achieved, it goes into twilight zone territory with methods how to achieve it in such polluted environment like PC.

I wonder what's the power draw for that thing, that it requires a separate input apart from the PCIe port. I got the same on my D2X, but there it was needed to power the PLX chip.

Read up the same. 12V line feeds all the card, the slot power mostly cut off from the board powering actually only the PCIe/PCI bridge.

TPU Please test it on a RYZEN platform as well. MANY audio cards do not work on Ryzen. I can confirm Asus STX II absolutely does NOT work with X390

Now this is an interesting one. There are two versions, one using PLX the other Asmedia bridge. The STX II uses only Asmedia, STX used both, depending on the revision, there should be an errata. The whole idea driving the vintage PCI Cmedia CMI8788 is a failure at core. Now the horrid story continues on. I don't approve hanging a buggy asmedia pcie to USB ic to drive a xMOS(the ASM chip doesn't fill out the latest USB3 xHCI specs, and is EOL device already) . It defeats the whole idea of having a tailored device. It should work on Ryzen, as a lot of the boards have the ASM1042A USB3 chip. I haven't seen any ryzen board having the old PCI slot made through any kind of PCIe to PCI bridge

 

[TheLostSwede]

This picture really irks me...

Where did you pull that out?

WIKI


It is only 6W in this case. There are like 25+ IC's on the board + a relay. Or are you insisting making a circus like Polaris did over abusing pcie slot power?

It's good that you can copy/paste from Wikipedia, but if you'd actually read on a bit, you'd seen this:

• A full-sized ×1 card may draw up to the 25 W limits after initialization and software configuration as a "high power device".

 

[Ferrum Master]

It's good that you can copy/paste from Wikipedia, but if you'd actually read on a bit, you'd seen this:

Ah yes. Coffee deficit.
Count up the power consumption each part, and it exceeds the 2.1A still.

 

[Dammeron]

Read up the same. 12V line feeds all the card, the slot power mostly cut off from the board powering actually only the PCIe/PCI bridge.

What I meant was that why not make a card for an 4x slot, just so it could draw more power from MB, without having to resort to external sources. My D2X needs an old 4 pin floppy connector - had to connect a whole 3*molex+floppy cable to my PSU just so I could power up the sound card!

 

[Ferrum Master]

What I meant was that why not make a card for an 4x slot, just so it could draw more power from MB, without having to resort to external sources. My D2X needs an old 4 pin floppy connector - had to connect a whole 3*molex+floppy cable to my PSU just so I could power up the sound card!

4x slot for a sound card... That's a bit sacrifice.

I have made a cable supplying the card from +12V fan header and a +5V fom USB header.

I actually preferred that they would make the card a total dummy then, like asus did with Thunderbolt Xonar. You had to attach USB header from motherboard, less hassle actually and works the same way.

The NIC part should be omitted at all. Actually it's one of the best performing Xonars.

PS.

After consuming my cup of coffee. IT IS 10W. 25W mode is only enabled after enabled initialization and boot, during that phase device cannot exceed 10W limit. This card has nothing to disable or enable to even vary the power limit, it fires ON and works no clock/voltage gating or module switching. This is the rule.

 

[goodeedidid]

Sound-card in 2019? 2004 called and... you get the point.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Sound-card in 2019? 2004 called and... you get the point.

1990 you mean?

Also, Orchid Technology called, they want their Nu name back. I did in fact own a Nusound PNP 32, which was one hell of a sound card back in the days.

 

[Robcostyle]

What's the sence in soundcards for usual folks? Solid DAC+AMP for less money will perform way better.

 

[Ferrum Master]

What's the sence in soundcards for usual folks? Solid DAC+AMP for less money will perform way better.

You are a minority...

Most use onboard and call it a day...

 

[dozenfury]

Very interested to hear more on this one. I know the word has been that "onboard is just as good" and for a good decade+ I think that was true. But that is finally is changing again. I upgraded from onboard Gigabyte 370 gaming board to a Creative SB X-AE5 (which is about $150 sound card for a bit lower specs than this EVGA) and it was a VERY noticeable and significant upgrade in clarity and noise reduction from onboard. Music, games, video, all sound so much better it's not funny. I'm picking up new sounds in videos I've watched many times.

It took a very long time for companies like Creative to crawl back and now for EVGA to enter the fray, but unless you're in the very high-end $400+ motherboard range there are definite audio upgrades available now. But I also know that audio is something that varies widely person to person, there are people that can't hear a difference between music on an old cassette tape and CD.

So even though I have a newer Creative card I was so pleasantly surprised by how much of an upgrade my Creative card was, I've been keeping an eye on this EVGA one for future upgrades because the specs and inputs/outputs are impressive. I'll be watching for the full review.

One last note, IIRC you can get $50 off this EVGA card direct if you are a member of the EVGA club on their website.

 

[Mescalamba]

Onboard?

If you hate music.. and games.

Looks interesting. Im curious how it will play out..

Otherwise Im quite happy with my Essence STX. Still could be better..

 

[Blueberries]

USB DACs cannibalize a USB port, another plug on your wall outlet, and desk space-- there's also more cables. I definitely see the attractiveness of a good sound card. Why should I plug my headphones into an external device when I could plug them directly into my PC? Wouldn't that be much cleaner and elegant? My problem is that ASUS already has a great soundcard available, the Xonar STX II, which has been around for years. On speculation alone, I doubt this will sound better, and at the same price point, you lose 7.1.

EVGA tried something new here and I don't think it's going to take off in the market it was designed for, but with the endorsements from sponsored YT celebrities, I'm sure they'll sell a few.

 

[erixx]

Having unboxing in titles actually increases SEO

Of course, my friend, I knew that, and if you added "Steaming hot sex tapes" it would also add SEO. But I predict a time were the cleverest algorhythms will filter OUT these terms

 

[halcyon]

TPU Please test it on a RYZEN platform as well. MANY audio cards do not work on Ryzen. I can confirm Asus STX II absolutely does NOT work with X390

Can you please detail this? How do these (which cards?) not work on Ryzen?

I'm also considering Ryzen platform as my next upgrade, and properly working audio is an absolute requirement for me.

Thanks!

 

[micropage7]

why behind the shroud it reminds me of onkyo

 

[Robert Bourgoin]

I have the Essence STX II and love it, Two years and counting. it's not for everyone.
Years ago it was common to have a sound card but ever since Abit NFS-V2 with the sound storm that changed it all.
I purchased quality 250 ohm headphones and that pushed me to the Asus sound card. Glad I did as that was just the beginning of my sound upgrade.
Speakers, sub, high definition Flacc music, ect.....
Love it. I would put this Essence card against any other.

 

[Vlada011]

I would like to replace my Sound Blaster ZXR with this new EVGA Sound Card.
Much nicer than colorful AE-5, no RGB and specifications look nice. I believe in this sound card.

 

[VSG]

I would like to replace my Sound Blaster ZXR with this new EVGA Sound Card.
Much nicer than colorful AE-5, no RGB and specifications look nice. I believe in this sound card.

There is RGB with the screen and LEDs lighting the logo, but you can turn it off.

 

[olstyle]

I get the extra power-in and compared to a DAC which takes 5V directly those LDOs could actually improve things a bit. But I don't get the PCI3 Bridge at all. If it is USB anyway, just make it a dummy and add an internal USB connector. There's probably more boards with unused USB-Headers than ones where actually using lanes on the PCIe does not impact some other part.

 

[Dubbo07]

I love how everyone here are experts on audio and electronics based on Wikipedia info.

 

[EarthDog]

I love how everyone here are experts on audio and electronics based on Wikipedia info.

Are you able to add something outside of toxicity?

 

[Dubbo07]

What's the sence in soundcards for usual folks? Solid DAC+AMP for less money will perform way better.

And you know this based on what?

Are you able to add something outside of toxicity?

Yup sounds like everyone here is adding their 2 cents that are literally toxic anyways. Please dont add bullshits that are misleading.

Seriously though what is a "solid DAC and AMP" for less than $250USD that will "perform" better?

Because you know there is a pretty good DAC and Amp stage in that soundcard...just saying