[Shane D]

I’ve got a few powered sets, but the calibrated Genelec 8351’s and the HEDD type 20 normally show up most of the details that are there. Have got a Chord Hugo, a Audeze Deckard and an Antelope Orion Studio to compare with on the DAC front in the room already. Am looking forward to this test, have got an antelope satori set up as an analogue switcher so should be able to do some realtime a/b/c tests with the other DAC’s

I wonder how it would sound driving a pair of ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2's? Would that be a great office system? Hmmmm

Shane D

 

[Anarion]

Going to be interesting to see which does better: AE-9 or this. Waiting for proper measurements. Though, since this has really nice ADC, even RMAA loopback test would give some insight how it actually performs.

 

[TJ Max]

If your motherboard handles the sound could you just plug this in or would you have to change motherboards?

Shane D

Take notice though that unlike most PCI cards that draw power form the PCI slot , this sound card requires a direct SATA connection to the power supply. So make sure your power supply has a spare SATA connector..

 

[TJ Max]

So is this sound card officially out? Amazon says ships in 1-2 months!?

 

[Shane D]

Take notice though that unlike most PCI cards that draw power form the PCI slot , this sound card requires a direct SATA connection to the power supply. So make sure your power supply has a spare SATA connector..

Yeah I noticed that and asked my computer guy about it. He said he'd have to check out the internals but he thinks so. It had been about four years since he last rebuilt it (new board, processor, HD and ram).

Recently I am just getting consumed with powered speakers. Youtube is an addiction...

Shane D

 

[TombotUK]

So is this sound card officially out? Amazon says ships in 1-2 months!?

I’ve been told end of the month as an in-store date.

Only had an short test session on the test bench with the card that I’ve got, but the headphone amp is absolutely excellent, got to be two to three watts output. Had a set of LCD-4 on with it, which really take some driving and it’s immensly detailed and powerful. Up somewhere in the same league as my Audeze Deckard (though a bit less power, as Deckard is 4 watt) and Chord Hugo (more headroom than Hugo).

Tried a couple of lower impedance models and it handled them with ease.

Will have more time with it next week and will test the line out in the listening room.

 

[TJ Max]

Does the card require the evga software or can it run from Windows built in generic drivers?

 

[TombotUK]

Does the card require the evga software or can it run from Windows built in generic drivers?

It does need the software, but this is no bad thing, there’s a graphic eq (very handy for a little 32hz boost for the extremely linear lcd-4) and gain control for the headphone amp to give you meaningful gain range over the master volume. There’s also options for slightly changing the character of the pcm filter.

 

[Anarion]

It does need the software, but this is no bad thing, there’s a graphic eq (very handy for a little 32hz boost for the extremely linear lcd-4) and gain control for the headphone amp to give you meaningful gain range over the master volume. There’s also options for slightly changing the character of the pcm filter.

About that gain control. How many gain settings are there and how much range? I find even the lowest gain pretty darn powerful in AE-5 (without vol pot I'd use ~8 % system volume nd low gain when using HD 6XX - there's also normal and high, no idea when those would be necessary...).

 

[phiemon]

So, any personal opinions about this card? It is the price worth or it would be better an external DAC (and here: which one would be comparable)?

 

[Whitigir]

The card look good, but no balanced out....sad...

 

[TJ Max]

The card look good, but no balanced out....sad...

And what internal sound cards out there have balanced outs?
Personally I prefer a sound card that has a coax digital output rather than an optical one.

 

[TombotUK]

About that gain control. How many gain settings are there and how much range? I find even the lowest gain pretty darn powerful in AE-5 (without vol pot I'd use ~8 % system volume nd low gain when using HD 6XX - there's also normal and high, no idea when those would be necessary...).

Spent another couple of hours with it yesterday. There would appear to be 50 gain settings for the headphone control, 0-100 in jumps of twos, with another 100 settings for the overall system volume. There's more than enough power to drive HD 6XX properly with headroom to spare. Am taking some 600 and 650s with me tomorrow and will tell you where i end up on the dials.

 

[TombotUK]

Ive had a bit of time to compare the DAC and headphone amp, it really is fantastic value for money, especially for headphone users.

Managed to do some comparisons to the DAC's i had on hand.
All units were run into an Antelope Satori monitor controller, with me referencing using both a calibrated set of Genelec 8351's and a set of low impedance LCD-4z on the Satori's headphone amp.

Audeze Deckard - Nu Audio sounded slightly sharper and had a little more dynamic definition and separation when used as a DAC via line outputs. The Nu Audio headphone amp had a tiny bit little more definition and dynamics, but the tonal balance was extremely similar, i suspect both of these units are using a very similar AKM converter chip and are both xmos based (didn't even need to put the driver on for the deckard, as the nu-audio one picked it up) . I changed the filter setting on NU-Audio to the top setting (cant remember what this was called, but i got noticeably sharper transients) It thendefinitely won me over from the deckard, although the deckard does have more power and headroom (but of course, you won't need it with low impedance headphones). However even with the master volume and headphone volume on full i was happy with the NU Audio output without saturation with the 200ohm (and hard to drive) LCD-4.

Antelope Orion Studio - The DAC on this is on of my favourites in the studio world and did have a little more dynamic detail and separation than the nu-audio, although the overall tonal balance was similar, but it is nearly 8 times the price! However, although the Orion has a very clean headphone amp, the Nu Audio smoked it for breakfast in the power stakes, I would much rather mix and listen to the nu-audio on headphones and you wouldn't have a choice with anything but the lowest impedance models on the Antelope.

Chord Hugo - I felt that there was a similar level of power between the nu-audio and the Hugo, but the nu-audio seemed to cope with the louder volumes on high impedance headphones slightly better! However, there is a touch more upper mid detail from the Hugo (which frankly, you would expect at over 5 times the price) equally on both the line and headphone outputs

So to sum up, I'd put it above the (£599) Deckard (though with slightly less headroom on the amp if you have extremely hard to drive headphones), and below the (£1400) Hugo... but at £249 its an absolute steal for the money, with the headphone amp especially being incredibly impressive at the price.
I'm going to try the same tests again with a set of HD650's and see how much of a noticeable difference it makes when you're not running £5K speakers and £3.6K headphones.

I'll try and pull some of the other high end PC sound cards and the similar priced pro interfaces to compare against too, now the silliness of NAMM week is over!
Will also have a go with the ADC compared to the Orion and the other pro interfaces as on paper, it does appear rather excellent.

 

[ericx85]

And what internal sound cards out there have balanced outs?
Personally I prefer a sound card that has a coax digital output rather than an optical one.

This +100

The only card that I ran into with a Coax output is the Essence STX ii, which I wanted to use for its virtual sound back in the day for the few times I'd feel like playing a game. Unforunately Dolby's idea of virtual sound is horrible with Dolby Headphone and Creative only puts optical outs on their cards