That's one hell of a setup! Very nice. How did you come up with LT1028ACNs? They don't seem to be very popular. Damn, I think I'll be back on track for searching for opamp replacement again! Keep up with your updates :)

There is limited information about the ZxR however, you can do like me - experiment based on results op-amps delivers on STX II. While it's true, op-amps output different sound on different sound systems, however, you could gain some information about how they sound by finding general...

I have swapped LME49710HAs slots with NE5534Ns. I have noticed less details with NE5534N - instruments which are heared easily are presented even more, so little details can be hardly noticed if you get what I mean :) and whole sound is like out of order, especially highs and lows, they do not...

Hi Hi resync, I'm quite busy lately so I didn't try such combo yet, but I will probably next week. I want to listen more to current setup to understand better how it sounds.

So I have finally installed 2x LME49710HA to buffers and 2x THS4032 to I\V     Of course, the cover wouldn't close due to LME49710HA with adapters being too tall to fit in :D   Sound quality:   Initial impressions: this isn't the card I used to have anymore. No more bass blowing to my...

So after a week of daily listening to music (mostly headphones) today I had some time to listen to some music on 2.0 speaker setup again. To my surprise music is now more spacy and bass is not as irritating as it was before, though somewhat missing neutral/natural sounding, listening to longer...

So here goes LME49710HA, with adapters, I haven't tested them yet. Figured I'd need some soldering to the adapter board, but I'll skip it and just plug directly to DIP8 socket, just bending the pins. The pinout seems to be identical on TO99 as on DIP8 clockwise so there will be no problems I...

So finally I have received motherboard and I tested the AD827SQs along NE5534Ns.   The bass produced now sounds more naturally, it still is noticeable (makes me think Creative produced it in mind to output a lot of bass). Now compared to Realtek 1150 found on Asrock Z87m:   -Much more sound...

  If you are satisfied with the card, there is no need. Really, it depends on your equipment and the needs. If you want effortless upgrade - go for Asus Essence STX II. I, however, bought ZxR without an extra investigation, so I ended up purchasing alot of other opams (I have them all sitting...

I'm still waiting for it :( according to RMA procedures, it may take up to 20 working days, and only 10 passed. Ah well... what a coincidence :) but surely I will update you as soon as I get it along with some pictures and overall experience.

A little update. I have ordered also 2x LME49710HA with TO99 -> DIP8 adapters and 2x THS4032 with SOIC8 -> DIP8 adapters (requires a bit of soldering, but I'm alright with that). It's kind of blind bet, ordering 4 pcs of chips without even checking how do those other 4 sound like I ordered...

I decided to go for LME49710HA with adapters. If I have some extra money left I'll get THS4032 for I/V, being praised for their soundstage and natural sounding, though I don't know how to convert dual channel opamp into a single channel one for buffers.

I have received all the opamps I ordered (AD827JNZ and NE5534N) the only thing I'm waiting for is motherboard to be replaced... the waiting is killing me :) also I have some other single channel opamps in mind. This thing is getting addictive.

Thank you for your research and updates, highly appreciated.   When I first bought Creative ZxR I noticed how artificial it sounded compared to Realtek 1150 as much as crazy I might sound. I couldn't find any AD827SQ for sale in our local electronics shop. I could find them on Aliexpress...