Review and Measurements of EVGA NU Audio PC Card

[sir_frigorifero]

The RGB technique is really simple and effective:

1) Put RGB lights in every product, even the unreasonable ones (ex: headphones). they're cheap so little to no cost on the production chain
2) Raise the price because RGBs
3) Lower the overall quality of the product. people will be to focused on the coloured lights to notice the cheaper build or components of the items they bought

So they earn money twice by reaching extended market shares and having a bigger earning cut on every product sold.

going back to the audio part, i agree with @Jimster480. EVGA boss is an audiophile, but an old school one, totally the opposite of the principles of quality by superior engineering we users of ASR believe in.

the secret to convert the gaming audience to a better understanding of good listening is to offer cheap but well balanced products. the majority of PC gaming users won't spend more that 100 bucks on audio equip. To pursue this kind of audience you have to offer something in this price point which have a reasonable audio quality and amplification, nothing top tier, but just reasonable. also include a mic input because headsets dominate the market.
i believe that something with a cheap Sabre or AKM dac with a 90dB sinad, an amplifier which can pump 100-130mW at low impedance and a price of 80-100$ would have the potential of bust the market and dominate gaming audio

 

[Leito360]

This or Topping DX3 Pro? Main use: gaming.
Also, which is better? XMOS Xcore 200 or XMOS XU208?

 

[Veri]

This or Topping DX3 Pro? Main use: gaming.
Also, which is better? XMOS Xcore 200 or XMOS XU208?

If you want to use the EVGA software then Nu Audio might make sense. XMOS XU208 is part of the 200 series.

 

[sir_frigorifero]

i see no reason to pick the nu audio, maybe only with a severe discount

 

[Leito360]

The previous gen really wasn't great..... I don't have high expectations for this model either.

Do you think it was so crappy? It usually sells for $150 on sale. Right now is $167 on Amazon. I was looking for DAC/AMP solutions around that price and I couldn't find many that convinced me. As I posted before, I put my eyes on the MX3, but I read that it has several manufacturing problems (DOA, infant mortality and others), the other one that really caught my attention was the DX3 Pro, but, assuming that NU Audio falls to $150 again, that would be a difference of $70 between the two devices (in favor of the NU Audio).

i see no reason to pick the nu audio, maybe only with a severe discount

In your opinion, would it be an acceptable card for $150?

 

[sir_frigorifero]

150€ may be a good price, but still the fact that it's internal makes it less appealing

 

[Veri]

150€ may be a good price, but still the fact that it's internal makes it less appealing

Rumors were that EVGA would come with USB-based external Nu Audio pretty soon after initial launch. But instead we got another PCI-E bridged card. Too bad, USB would be better for audio enthusiasts rather than gamer audience.

 

[sir_frigorifero]

honestly i think that externals are way better for every kind of audience. PC people think they're better for no reasons. externals have all the benefits (easy to transport, less interferences, volume control, no PCI lanes bandwidth stolen, ecc.)
on the contrary the problem is how external sound cards are developed. they always want to use USB for both data and power, this place a huge limit on power available to the amplifier. just using an external power source would be great to offer reasonable power for most headsets

 

[bennetng]

EVGA just released NU Audio 'PRO' with 7.1 Surround daughter card.
https://www.evga.com/articles/01376/evga-nu-audio-pro/

I'm intrigued with the quad dac set-up:
DAC - 4x AKM AK4493

You forgot to mention the premium AK5572 ADC!
$250 is cheap, but dual-slot means it can't be used with mATX boards. No room for the GPU card to breathe.

 

[somebodyelse]

honestly i think that externals are way better for every kind of audience. PC people think they're better for no reasons. externals have all the benefits (easy to transport, less interferences, volume control, no PCI lanes bandwidth stolen, ecc.)

Horses for courses. The external interface is easier to transport on its own, but 2 boxes isn't as easy as 1 box. Pro audio cards have managed decent performance internally, so interference isn't an unsolvable problem. There are plenty of volume control options - on the case, keyboard, as a separate control or even an infrared remote. There is no bandwidth stolen - if you've got a spare slot you've got a spare lane, and the bandwidth has to hit the cpu via one interface or another. Ultimately it's the performance that matters, and being internal or external doesn't have much to do with that.

on the contrary the problem is how external sound cards are developed. they always want to use USB for both data and power, this place a huge limit on power available to the amplifier. just using an external power source would be great to offer reasonable power for most headsets

Plenty of external interfaces have an option for, or require, an external power supply. Moving to USB 3.x, as at least some are doing, will significantly increase the power available too.

 

[sir_frigorifero]

don't mix professional interfaces with gaming or consumer ones. they are clearly on different levels of quality and user targets.

i have heard plenty of cases where people have interferences even with mouse scrolling. most computer hardware should be quite stable but a little defect can cause plenty of problems internally.
bandwidth is stolen. lanes are CPU bound and those reserved to the motherboard often go to storage utilities. in the end you either use bandwidth reserved for GPUs or storage drives on m.2 slots.

for external power supply again don't mix professional or prosumer prodcts with mainstream gaming ones. there are not a single one that uses an external power brick. the only ones that i know of are the mayflower arc and the burson play, which are more expensive than the usual gaming products targeted by the bigger share of users

 

[somebodyelse]

don't mix professional interfaces with gaming or consumer ones. they are clearly on different levels of quality and user targets.

You didn't make that distinction before. you said "for every kind of audience." You might have a point if you're arguing that designers of gaming interfaces don't pay attention audio quality, and that if you're not paying attention it's got a better chance of ending up half decent if it's external than if it's internal.

i have heard plenty of cases where people have interferences even with mouse scrolling. most computer hardware should be quite stable but a little defect can cause plenty of problems internally.

And externally - I've heard noise on external USB audio devices when moving the mouse too. Poor decoupling doesn't discriminate, especially when the interface and mouse are sharing a front panel with an iffy cable back to the motherboard usb headers.

bandwidth is stolen. lanes are CPU bound and those reserved to the motherboard often go to storage utilities. in the end you either use bandwidth reserved for GPUs or storage drives on m.2 slots.

Typically the M2 and GPU slots are using the faster PCIe v>=3 lanes dedicated to those slots. Audio cards will be in a 1x slot which will have a slower PCIe v2 lane, and those aren't usually in short supply, often dedicated to the slot. I suppose you could stick the audio card in a 4x slot which might be using the fast lanes, but why would you do that? The difference in CPU resource usage between an internal interface on a 1x slot, an internal interface on a USB header and an external interface on a USB port will be minimal. The crapware and drivers that come with the interface will probably have more influence than the bus type.

for external power supply again don't mix professional or prosumer prodcts with mainstream gaming ones. there are not a single one that uses an external power brick. the only ones that i know of are the mayflower arc and the burson play, which are more expensive than the usual gaming products targeted by the bigger share of users

I refer the honorable gentleman to the answer I gave some moments ago.

 

[sir_frigorifero]

well since we're talking in a thread of a gaming sound card i thought it would be clear. my bad for not explaining myself better.

i agree on the usb issues, i heard lots of those too, but usually they're bound on certain usb ports and you can buy USB isolators to try and resolve this kind of problems.

you raised another important deal with gaming audio hardware: drivers and software.
this poop of a software most of the times ruins all and gives all sorts of problems. is it too hard to do something plug and play?!

 

[somebodyelse]

Different viewpoint I guess - to me it's just another computer audio interface.

That's within 'normal' for a USB connection. A UCA202 can handle it, at least in my experience, so nothing more expensive has any excuse. Forget the isolator and get a properly designed interface

I was going to say the crapware was OT, but it's mentioned as a problem in the review. The whole Windows driver/software bundle situation has never made sense to me. Do they find an abominable user experience is a selling point if you include enough blinkenlights? On the linux side most drivers target the chipset, with quirks handling for the variations on specific cards. Occasionally there are things that don't fit into the usual way of doing things, like the display and capacitive buttons on the Forte, so might need a specific piece of software to control them. I guess manufacturers feel this wouldn't give them enough scope to differentiate their product from the competition. Perhaps lack of manufacturer support is actually a blessing in disguise.

 

[BogdanR]

Something tells me this card would be perfectly adequate for getting some vinyl digitized. For a pretty decent price actually. I mean, aside from some dedicated phono pre/ ADC on the market, what else is there for a couple hundred dollars?

 

[Doodski]

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Audio-712-P1-AN01-KR-Lifelike-Designed/dp/B07MSQJ3GY

 

[Doodski]

Something tells me this card would be perfectly adequate for getting some vinyl digitized. For a pretty decent price actually. I mean, aside from some dedicated phono pre/ ADC on the market, what else is there for a couple hundred dollars?

There is the new EVGA NU PRO too... it's basically the same card essentialy with a backplate, more colorful card and LEDs.
https://www.evga.com/articles/01281/evga-nu-audio/
https://www.evga.com/articles/01376/evga-nu-audio-pro/

 

[BogdanR]

https://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Audio-712-P1-AN01-KR-Lifelike-Designed/dp/B07MSQJ3GY

I had a look at the Amazon pricing on our side of the border. Ouch! Actually it is more like rape.

 

[Doodski]

I had a look at the Amazon pricing on our side of the border. Ouch! Actually it is more like rape.

Oh you are in Canada like me... I've seen the EVGA NU AUDIO go on sale a couple of times for $200.00 at Memory Express.
https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX75365

 

[Rizen]

There is the new EVGA NU PRO too... it's basically the same card essentialy with a backplate, more colorful card and LEDs.
https://www.evga.com/articles/01281/evga-nu-audio/
https://www.evga.com/articles/01376/evga-nu-audio-pro/

I have one. It's not quite the same. There's no front-panel audio connector because that was a source of electrical interference on the original. It also has different capacitors, and a different - reportedly better - headphone op-amp.

I don't really know how to objectively test audio but happy to run some tests if there's something I can do without specialized hardware

Subjectively, upgrading from an ASUS Xonar Essence STX (the original), I am very pleased. I'm listening with a set of Massdrop Sennheiser HD6XXs and the audio is crystal clear, big sound stage, and positional audio in games like Battlefield V is incredibly accurate.