CES 2020: EVGA Showcases New Nu Audio Pro Card
by Andrei Frumusanu on January 10, 2020 12:00 PM EST
Initially announced last November, EVGA at CES 2020 showcased the new second generation Nu Audio Pro audio card. The latest model improves upon its predecessor in several ways, including adding 7.1 channel output option, as well as adding RGB lighting. Overall, EVGA remains a relative newcomer to the sound card market, with the company having started off its journey with the original Nu Audio last year, targeting the more niche high-end internal audio solution market.
Nu Audio vs Nu Audio Pro
The new Nu Audio Pro improves upon the first generation in terms of component choices; it still contains the same XMOS xCORE-200 DSP accompanied by Asahi Kasei Microdevices’ (AKM) AK4493 DAC, the AKM AK5572 ADC, and the Cirrus Logic CS5346 ADC. But it’s said that the supporting analog components have been improved so the new characteristics of the card are enhanced.
Design-wise, we’re also seeing a refresh as the new card now sports a red-black finish, and it has hopped on the RGB train with side-mounted LED strips that can be animated and synced with audio playback.
The main board is a straightforward replacement to last year’s model and comes at a $199 price tag.
Nu Audio Pro & Nu Audio Pro Surround
Instead, what’s special for EVGA's audio card this year is the introduction of a second daughter board that allows for 7.1 channel audio playback. The second board has three additional outputs and is fully self-contained in terms of the audio signal generation, including its own DACs. The interface between the card is digital via a repurposed DisplayPort connector between the two boards. The daughterboard’s PCIe connector just serves as grounding as well as structural support – in theory you can have this free-floating instead of having it take up a PCIe slot on your motherboard, but there might be degradations due to possible lesser grounding.
The full Nu Audio Pro kit with the 7.1 add-on card can be had for $299; otherwise the boards are sold separately for $199 and $119 respectively, with availability set in the comings months. Overall, EVGA tells us that they’re continuing to iterate on their designs, and that the company is also investigating the development of an external USB version of the card (The PCIe versions actually use a PCIe to USB bridge internally for connectivity) in the future.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
39 Comments
View All Comments
PeachNCream - Friday, January 10, 2020 - link
jordanclock ... jeremyshawI'm not sure I should suggest you try harder or point out that you're already trying too hard.
Qasar - Friday, January 10, 2020 - link
with all due respect peachncream... i have seen you do the same thing as you are accusing jordanclock and jeremyshaw of doingPeachNCream - Saturday, January 11, 2020 - link
That is undeniably a true statement and I take no offense in reading it. Although, I don't generally invest genuine emotion when doing so. That arguably could be considered trolling as well and I acknowledge that too. What I don't get (or actually, decline to factor in at all even though I understand the perspective and likely hypocrisy argument being made) is why it matters at all if I do or not. It doesn't invalidate the point I was making about the person behind jordanclock+jeremyshaw's keyboard.Billy Tallis - Sunday, January 12, 2020 - link
Please don't be a jerk in our comment threads. There are plenty of other places for you to go be wrong.Retycint - Saturday, January 11, 2020 - link
The same question could be posed to the original commenter: "Why does the presence of RGB matter so much to you?"Anyway you seemed to have missed the point, because jordanclock was parodying the original comment by using the same style of writing.
FullmetalTitan - Saturday, January 11, 2020 - link
Rich coming from a user who PRIMARILY comments on articles to complain about something trivialPeachNCream - Saturday, January 11, 2020 - link
Whoosh!ingwe - Friday, January 10, 2020 - link
I think it is annoying to see the full spectrum (which is always in marketing photos) but when setting everything to one color, they can look nice. That said, I don't have any RGBs on my case so maybe I don't actually think they look nice hahaRetycint - Saturday, January 11, 2020 - link
How about you just leave the RGB off? Nobody is forcing you to turn on RGB, ya knowCaedenV - Sunday, January 12, 2020 - link
I was always annoyed by the RGB thing, but never understood about why people get so militantly upset about it until I rebuilt my system last fall... the things don't default to 'off' and you often have to install half-baked and untrustworthy software in order to turn it off.This really does need to stop. Either ship the product with it off, and allow people to install crap software to turn it on, or give us a switch to toggle the lights on and off. Outside of that, who cares if a vendor wants to spend $2 on crappy lighting that they could otherwise take as profit. I am not exactly seeing the prices of products rise because of the addition of the lights.