Review and Measurements of EVGA NU Audio PC Card

[Sythrix]

Good to see some more reviews of sound cards. I thought after you reviewed my Asus STX II, you were done with measuring them altogether.

I'm pretty sure the one I sent you was actually defective. When the relays clicked, they sometimes caused my PC to reset, or not start up. Don't know the relevance of that to measurements, but regardless... it's not well made.

I took it out and will probably just shelve it. Have transferred my ADI DAC-2 and my THX 789 into the computer room instead.

 

[Jimster480]

Good to see some more reviews of sound cards. I thought after you reviewed my Asus STX II, you were done with measuring them altogether.

I'm pretty sure the one I sent you was actually defective. When the relays clicked, they sometimes caused my PC to reset, or not start up. Don't know the relevance of that to measurements, but regardless... it's not well made.

I took it out and will probably just shelve it. Have transferred my ADI DAC-2 and my THX 789 into the computer room instead.

Which card are you referring to here?

 

[georgeT]

Would have loved to see the board meeting when they decided to make this card: "As you know 5.1 sound card cards sales are a at all time low, how can we profit from this?" audiophile in the back of the room: "I know! How about a 2.0 card?" *head smack*.
I feel bad for people who bought this card.

 

[Bc1991]

Ahh, was waiting for this. The main SINAD is a little worse than in their own testing on youtube (although output level is dead-on? cherry picked device ?) but overall not a bad sound card for a PCI-E DAC. It's more akin to an USB DAC put on a PCI-E bridge but I digress; the ADC is pretty good! Not bad for an all-in-one sound card package indeed, could do a lot worse!

Thank you very much @amirm for the steady flow of reviews these past days/weeks !!!

something different.

 

[amirm]

What's different other than the measurements?

 

[Veri]

something different.View attachment 34525

Care to elaborate?

 

[somebodyelse]

Care to elaborate?

Compare with the 'Details Matter' image in post #1 of this thread - the opamp and the caps are different. There's no picture of @amirm's board with the cover off so we don't know what's in that one.

 

[Eirikur]

something different.

Here a clear shot from above from their website: they certainly changed caps and also the op-amp!

 

[Sythrix]

Which card are you referring to here?

The ASUS STX II

 

[amirm]

Here a clear shot from above from their website: they certainly changed caps and also the op-amp!
View attachment 34526

Good catch! That is an entirely different revision of the board!

 

[mkawa]

on that note, could you try rolling the opa to a 1612, lme49710 or similar and measure?

very very interesting

 

[Veri]

Here a clear shot from above from their website: they certainly changed caps and also the op-amp!
View attachment 34526

Haha good catch, they are using audio note kaisei high end expensive capacitors and a better specced op amp soldered on a dip switch just to squueze out better performance...

This is rather misleading. Good that we have third party measurements from an off-the-shelf regular unit courtesy of @amirm

 

[pkane]

Same card was just measured by @Miska on AS. Results are somewhat different (a little better), so I wonder if opamp and other differences are the reason... or is it the HQPlayer helping in his testing due to proper pre-filtering?

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/56641-evga-nu-audio/?do=findComment&comment=992408

 

[josiah]

Thank you for the review. I was eyeing this as one of my options!

 

[Eirikur]

Good catch! That is an entirely different revision of the board!

Thanks, although credits go to new member @Bc1991! I just followed up with a cleaner picture.
The board in the video looks like a one-off with those replacement caps, rather than a true revision.

Anyway: $149 by now with free shipping, that's not too bad - strangely we're restricted to only 2 per household...

 

[MhtLion]

Same card was just measured by @Miska on AS. Results are somewhat different (a little better), so I wonder if opamp and other differences are the reason... or is it the HQPlayer helping in his testing due to proper pre-filtering?

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/56641-evga-nu-audio/?do=findComment&comment=992408

It's hard to have a consistent measuring for an internal PC component because PSU (most important) + Motherboard + Any deviced connected matters. When a manufacturer measures their own, they usually remove all WiFi/Bluetooth and anything not needed and install a brand new OS as well. Miska is known for having a reference-quality PC, so more likely amirm's measurement is more representation of an average user in my opinion.

 

[dropbear]

I wonder, how would the little Syba compete with these other AiO sound cards
https://www.amazon.com/Syba-Sonic-Headphone-Amplifier-Digital/dp/B07XJ89KV6/

 

[bennetng]

Same card was just measured by @Miska on AS. Results are somewhat different (a little better), so I wonder if opamp and other differences are the reason... or is it the HQPlayer helping in his testing due to proper pre-filtering?

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/56641-evga-nu-audio/?do=findComment&comment=992408

FYI my 2010 released soundblaster card measured in 2013 and 2018 with two completely different PCs, almost no difference. So it makes sense to me that Amir's card has some QC or component differences from Miska's.

If there are improvements from HQPlayer, they should be in the ultrasonic range and/or aliasing in the audible range, rather than the height of the harmonics. Miska's card should have over 100dB SINAD if measured in Amir's PC.

soundblaster in 2013 PC

soundblaster in 2018 PC

 

[Tup3x]

It's hard to have a consistent measuring for an internal PC component because PSU (most important) + Motherboard + Any deviced connected matters. When a manufacturer measures their own, they usually remove all WiFi/Bluetooth and anything not needed and install a brand new OS as well. Miska is known for having a reference-quality PC, so more likely amirm's measurement is more representation of an average user in my opinion.

It would be interesting to see how much high quality PSU makes a difference vs. cheap garbage that is barely within spec. I suspect that it will make a difference. Then there's grounding related stuff too that might cause some issues...

 

[bennetng]

It would be interesting to see how much high quality PSU makes a difference vs. cheap garbage that is barely within spec. I suspect that it will make a difference. Then there's grounding related stuff too that might cause some issues...

FYI the measurements in my previous posts are made by using cheap Antec NEO ECO and FSP HEXA+ PSUs and they are at around $50.