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EVGA NU Audio Pro Review (Internal Sound Card)
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
Cool. A poor man's Okto DAC8.
Vasr
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Really not sure what the daughter card is doing with the PCIe connector. According to their documentation the data and power to the daughter card comes from the DP connector from the main board. Wouldn't surprise me if it was just for physical integrity and power for the LED lights separately from the data path power requirements.
With a few caveats. Internal cards are prone to ground loop or other noise issues inside a PC and you can never predict when they might manifest.
Also, the output from the connectors in the daughter board for the 6 channels is likely to be degraded relative the L and R (how much is unknown). It has shared connectors for two channels and looks like slightly different electronics in the DAC implementation even though the chip is the same. So, at the minimum, this potential asymmetry need to be taken into account when assigning channels for active crossover use.
I am amused that Amir went into the pain of installing the daughter card (the main card will work without daughter card) but didn't measure anything coming out of it.
Where this card really shines seems to be the ADC if one is using it for home studio recording (podcasts, demo tapes, etc) as good or better than pro audio interfaces (or at a much lower relative price). Just purchasing the main board for $100 less for 2 channel needs is a good option for this card.
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The biggest problem (IMHO) with tantalum capacitors is that tantalum is a conflict mineral.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #45
No need to be amused as I never installed the secondary card. Had hard enough time installing the main card in my tight configuration.
I would like to add my 2 cents about this card. 1. What speaker system can take advantage of analog 7.1 (Not those cheap 7.1 computer speakers)?. 2. Wouldn't it be better to use a AV receiver to do 7.1? I mean you can decode DTS MA and DD TrueHD with those. I've had a bad experience with my NU Card. The Driver would crash when you switch from ASIO to DS. Speaking of drivers, EVGA didn't even bother to update the drivers for nearly 2 years. The card still has bugs and glitches. I only use the card for its amazing ADC these days, as it doesn't crash.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #47
Assuming you take care of volume control somehow, you feed these outputs to a multi-channel amp and then to your speakers. Or you could get that many powered speakers using the same scheme. Admittedly volume control is an issue for some of us who don't like software volume control.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #49
Unfortunately not. I sat on that card for so long that the company finally asked me to send it back which I did. My fault. I just dread opening my machine. It has a hundred cables going into it and it is such a mess to drag out, open, mess with it, etc.
sam_adams
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maxxevv
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Nice review!
I am pondering building a HTPC that is capable of light gaming to replace my AVR. This will allow me to have all my gizmos in one box that I can easily upgrade when desired. Amps are amps are amps but the biggest hassle is the constant HDMI upgrades, various TV tech and whatever gizmo my wife likes so I'm at the point of going back to HTPC.
Of course, it would be cool to have Atmos thrown in but I'm a few years out and have the time for that to happen. The EVGA CEO has the audio disease so maybe that can happen in the future.
Part of my smoke and mirrors project. My wife would love to get rid of the Blu Ray player and that stupid AVR because...yeah. A computer with a Blu Ray she would like as the case can be whatever her heart desires. I'll get the sound card that matches up to my audio needs which is fine because it is a "computer" and not that annoying audo related garbage....right? My amplifiers will be hidden as they are now, I'll just have more channels to bury.
My speakers/subs/surround speaker project is almost done but my laptop connected to the TV is getting old so, my next audio surround processor will be stealthed out as a computer.
Thanks again, Amir--good to see you testing the computer based audio items from the dark side. Now to figure out a good Blu Ray drive, Asus? Pioneer? LG? It will be a year or two, it will be rather nice to just look at sound cards and not invest in a mega AVR that will be obsolete before the warranty is up. Upgrade the part that goes obsolete and leave everything else alone? Madness!
The beauty of the modular PC components is that you can basically build it inside a cabinet or as a friend did, into his living coffee table. With a glass top to peer inside. He uses it for his gaming as well as NetFlix / home movies and its basically his home entertainment center.
Sounds unpractical. Does he keep it on a leash?
KxDx
Senior Member
Is there a way to test it while your cpu/gpu are under load? I finally moved away from my Xonar card to an external DAC because of the noise I could hear in my speakers whenever I played games with it.
I would have bought it if it only had AES/EBU digital output so I could connect my PC directly to my Genelec 8350b speakers
Great soundcard for replace my old Creative X-Fi Elite Pro in my HTPC...
But have you tested the Windows driver Amir ?
Typicaly the driver doesn't support all the stuff for setting a good 5.1 multichannels environnement (except my old X-Fi)
EDIT: I found the complet spec of the driver, not good for me:
https://www.evga.com/Support/AudioCard/SoftWare/
No delay/angle for placement, no EQ per channel, next...
But have you tested the Windows driver Amir ?
Typicaly the driver doesn't support all the stuff for setting a good 5.1 multichannels environnement (except my old X-Fi)
EDIT: I found the complet spec of the driver, not good for me:
https://www.evga.com/Support/AudioCard/SoftWare/
No delay/angle for placement, no EQ per channel, next...
Last edited:
The specialized CA20K DSP/controller on bona fide PCI and PCIE X-Fi cards are actually pretty advanced, as described in the attached PDF files.
Also, with Daniel_K drivers, these cards still have good support for recent Windows.
AnalogSteph
Major Contributor
I wonder where the analog gain setting for the headphone output is lurking on this one... the AK4493 is a plain DAC, and the headphone driver seems to be pretty straightforward opamp + buffer circuitry as well, so where does the variable output noise floor come from?
The mic input seems to have its own ADC with built-in preamp and mic bias generator, a CS5346... its specs indicate about 2.5 µV worth of input noise, which would be little better than your average Realtek, but noise subjectively is supposed to be quite low, so with a bit of luck the bias supply may be decently quiet. I do wish someone would measure these, as nobody ever seems to... not sure a resistor of 2k2 or so would be adequate as a dummy mic though, a more elaborate circuit with a drain / collector output may be required to accurately gauge input SNR. I'll have to think about this.
The mic input seems to have its own ADC with built-in preamp and mic bias generator, a CS5346... its specs indicate about 2.5 µV worth of input noise, which would be little better than your average Realtek, but noise subjectively is supposed to be quite low, so with a bit of luck the bias supply may be decently quiet. I do wish someone would measure these, as nobody ever seems to... not sure a resistor of 2k2 or so would be adequate as a dummy mic though, a more elaborate circuit with a drain / collector output may be required to accurately gauge input SNR. I'll have to think about this.
Perhaps they use that to prevent ground loops or to power the additional expansion card or connect the two.
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