sound card by Audio Note UK

the company that stole the audio note brand in broad daylight from what is now known as Kondo japan ... would like to introduce a sound card with their Rubycon sourced ultra special caps and extra nice audio note branded resistors all over it. it also has RGB lights so get in line.

https://www.evga.com/articles/01281/evga-nu-audio/

 

No option for a linear power supply? lame.

 

"Audio Note (UK), Ltd. has been in the high-end audio business for over 30 years, making a name for itself..."

LOL VERGA LOL
Just for the record, Mr Kondo did not agree with such statement:
http://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.html?forum=general&n=37527
Thief's shameless response:
http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=general&n=36887

Audio Note UK is even worse than LH Labs, the latter steals designs and doesn't deliver products, but the former steals the whole name of a company, and not only steals the designs but also fucks them by using worse parts and sells them at even more expensive prices (which is no joke, Kondo stuff is really expensive).

"Audio Note (UK), Ltd." can go f**k themselves with a chinese replica 211 tube.

 

The guy was the distributor for audio note in UK but through some legal maneuvering stole the rights to the name everywhere except in japan and this wasn't just any name, audio note was already legendary. this was a theft in the order of millions of dollars. it is so shameless for him to say that he worked alongside Kondo san when the reality is that kondo san had original designs of his own for years, known for pursuit of absolute perfection and his legendary all silver transformers and this guy was nobody. but turns out if you spend some advertising dollars the audio press can be very forgiving. just like the time that it came out that the 5000 USD Goldmund DVD player was a 30 dollar pioneer optic in a big box. somehow stereophile didnt see much to cover there lol.

 

Looks like I got a replacement for my Sound Blaster sound card

 

The two posts previous to yours suggest Audio Note (UK) is just someone using/stealing audio note's name. May need to do some extra research on the sound card to see if it's a good idea.

 

I bought one of these cards and used it for about a week, got a good deal from EVGA so I didn't lose any money and I wanted to try and see how far soundcards have come.

For music when using the inbuilt headphone amp these bested the Creative ZxR quite easily, it's not a super high-end sound but it's coherent and feels "relaxed" and "unstressed". There is decent blackness to the background, vocals are present and focused, good bass response etc. Absolutely good enough for HD650 and even a modded HD800 actually.

For gaming however these lack all the fun factors such as surround sound, loudness, dolby, scout mode etc which makes the ZxR so good for that.

So if you want to listen to music I recommend the EVGA Nu Audio, for its price it does a hell of a lot of things right and very little wrong. But if you primarily want to game go with the ZxR, that's what it does best. But ZxR is absolutely not bad for music either, way better than on-board audio from the motherboard.

Overall I think EVGA has built a very nice product here, but since it's supposed to be used with a computer I'd like to see more gaming related features. As it is it basically functions as an external DAC/AMP but it sits inside the computer. You'll save some money doing that since you won't have to pay for PSU and an enclosure etc, but you also lose flexibility when it comes to future upgrades.

Still, if you're on a budget and have a computer and want to listen to music you can get on of these cards and maybe a pair of HD650's. That might be a nice starving student rig. The real question might be how the EVGA Nu audio stacks up against something like the Schiit Fulla.

 

@TwoEars so is the ZxR the best of the bunch for surround game goodies? I know we're slightly OT.

I was looking at the G5 as it also has the 'pro' audio-fuckery software, and I wouldn't have to get rid of my dedicated USB interface.

Also thanks for taking the time to check it out.

 

@Taverius

Yeah, for gaming and surround sound and general audio-fuckery the ZxR is the card to go for out of the two, it has virtual surround which works fairly well with most games. EVGA Nu Audio doesn't really do any of that, it has an EQ but that's about it. I think EVGA have said that they're going to add more features in the future but right now it doesn't really have any gaming features, it's pure audio card more or less. There is also the Asus Essence STX II which is supposed to be good but I haven't tried that one. I'm also not sure about the G5 you speak of, no real comment or experience with that one.

All I can say is that the ZxR is still one of the best gaming fuckery cards I know of and it beats the Nu Audio for that. Creative have launched some more cards since the ZxR was introduced and some of them have sabre chips and another one has CS4398 etc. But the ZxR is still in the line-up and the most expensive gaming card they make, so maybe that means they still consider it top dog? I'm not really sure but for me the ZxR is good enough for gaming not to bother with anything else.

If you want you can also use any of the Creative cards with toslink or spdif to pass a signal to an external DAC. So if you already have a fancy headphone rig but want more gaming effects you can pass a signal to an external dac and headphone amp that way. Toslink is probably preferred because of electrical isolation. And in that case you can probably get any of the creative cards as long as it has Creative's Sound Core technology, you won't be using the onboard dac chip or op-amps anyway.

Another thing is that I wouldn't bother with 5.1 or 7.1 headsets, what you want is a good regular headphone and some sort of virtual surround sound IMHO. The latest update of Win10 actually includes virtual surround which you can switch on. Last I tried it I preferred the Creative one, but it can be a fun option to try. Just google for a guide in that case, I'm sure you'll find it.

Bit of a ramble but maybe some of it helps.

 

Thanks, that helps figure things out.

I do have Windows Sonic (what a stupid name) enabled and it's better than nothing but not great.

I was planning to drive the toslink into Yggdrasil so I'll just get the G5 then.

The Mobius does a good job with VSS but the headband doesn't like my pointy head so I'm going to have to sell it.

 

@Taverius

I'm not sure the G5 has the same virtual surround as found in the PCI-E cards. The surround sound engine I'm familiar with is the Sound Core 3d which is found in the ZxR, AE5 and the other internal cards. Might want to google that a bit and see what others are saying.

But in general, yes. Toslink into Yggdrasil would be the way to go IMHO. Complete overkill but why not. lol.

 

Do not go for the G5, it had the worst SBX implementation I ever heard. I don't know how it is today but it was definitely a bad purchase back.

I'd get the BlasterX G6 (should be arond 109€ in EU right now), especially if you also have a console. You can use SBX while being connected to both a PC and a PS4/Xbox one while outputting everything via optical to your DAC.

on a sidenote: If you purchase the Dolby Access app and apply it to your Gen 5 USB you can watch Atmos movies with Dolby's object based HRTF model and virtualize 7.1 for games (unless they use Atmos, then it's the former). Music is passthrough, meaning it won't get virtualized. Only multichannel and Atmos embedded stuff.

Owning a Gungnir Multibit since almost a year I'm very confident that the CFF synergizes very well (I once posted about it on my profile), so it might seem overkill at first but it's definitely better than without. Better stage, depth, somewhat unreal tracing of cues etc..

I know, the staging capabilities are nothing new for the Gungnir Multibit and Yggdrasil. Just saying they add up here in worthwhile manner.

 

OK, we're going wildly OT so I guess this is best split into its own thread, but thanks, I'll take a look at what has Sound Core 3D, and I'll try the Atmos app.

 

target audience level is so pro, i cant even comprehend this level is sound: "super highend card and if you already have a stereo that sounds good it is gonna sound better with this card, because it just gonna sound better."

 

The history of Kondo vs Qvortrup is rather complicated and twisted by the bias of whoever is dredging it up. This wasn’t an evil businessman taking advantage of a poor, naive artist. Kondo was educated, intelligent and experienced in the business. This was a mutually beneficial partnership between individuals with skill sets that complimented each other. Qvortrup invested heavily in Kondo. Qvortrup also did the marketing and the legwork to establish the products on the global market. This was a partnership, and eventually it ended.

When partnerships end, it’s often messy. In this case the courts sided with Qvortrup. We shouldn’t discount that fact. Still, Kondo felt the need to publicly attack Qvortrup and, hey, people like siding with the claimed victim. Qvortrup’s response was civil and well reasoned. But that doesn’t matter; people will read and comprehend things differently. Bias is real, emotional response is real, etc.

Also, OP left this post out:
https://www.audioasylum.com/messages/general/38282/more-on-thieves-liars-amp-magpies

And this:
http://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.h...um=ALL&sortRank=None&sort=date&sortOrder=DESC

Andy Grove (AN UK’s lead designer) is not Kondo, but he is a prolific designer and well known in the industry. AN UK’s designs are quite different from both the old Kondo gear and obviously the newer stuff. The Ongaku (which Qvortrup named by the way) is nothing like the original. Kondo made 5 amps and AN UK makes a heck of a lot more than that plus speakers, turntables, DACs, CDPs, Transports, and they’ve recently collaborated with Psvane to release new 211 and 300B tubes (Psvane being well established in tube production and AN UK having ideas on metallurgy). Parts quality is hugely important to AN UK’s business, to the point that they manufacture their own resistors, capacitors, etc. This company controls what gets into their products from start to finish and they build it by hand. The products are the polar opposite of Chinese garbage, and the designs were not stolen from anyone.

But SCANDAL is super fun isn’t it? Christ, give it a rest.



Somewhat back on topic: the rollout of this soundcard seems odd to me. I just don’t see it fitting into many people’s lives with the huge number of USB DACs available.

 

Worst is that this NU Audio IS actually an xmos usb card with a pci-usb hub slapped on. A 'USB' version is likely coming soon afterwards (the ground work is already there...)

 

So, first "Audio Note" Japan make a name by themselves, then hire Petr Quattro cheese, who with a legal maneuver gets the rights of the name "Audio Note" (UK), and when releases a product, in this case a crappy soundcard that has nothing to do with true High End audio, writes in the press release: "Audio Note (UK), Ltd. has been in the high-end audio business for over 30 years, making a name for itself..."

It doesn't matter how much you twist it, why isn't "Audio Note UK" called "Peter Steals Note, UK"? Because "Audio Note" (people think of Audio Note JAPAN), sells way more!

My educated conclusion: f**k you for being an ignorant rando, introduce yourself in the appropiate thread and use common sense more often.

 

Eh, he seems to know a bit about the history between the two companies.

While legally stealing the name from one company is shady, I still can't get behind a company that sells amplifiers from a design point, are designed similarly to other $3,000-$6,000 amp, but sell at $50,000 prices for just the added boutique parts.

 

I don't care about how much can be written or known of the story, I only know that if it smells like shit and looks like shit...is always shit, not a diamond.
The UK guy has a company called "Audio Note", and that's it. I won't support that POS.

Do you know how much a silver transformer costs?
https://www.audiohobby.eu/et/lundah...-amplifier-output-transformer-ll2752agam.html
Lundahl is very high quality but not "uber-fi", ask Tribute or Monolith to build you a pure silver transformer with a Finemet Core, and be prepared to see a price 2 or 3 times higher than that. That's for ONE transformer.
Kondo designs are simple and uber expensive but at least you get the very best parts money can buy inside the amp. It's not like, let's say, Lamm, who charges even more but the parts BOM is probably lower than Yggdrasil.

 

wow that is insane! thanks for pointing that out, didn't realise boutique parts even went that far