Fenix PCI-Express Sound Card

I just upgraded to this card from the ASUS ROG Strix Raid Pro DLX. I was experiencing hardware failure after hardware failure with the ASUS card, and contacted HT Omega about how their products had been doing. Their support answered my questions and I purchased this card as a result.Asus tech support had me hanging more than 3 weeks with no resolution in sight.Pros:*Great price.*Amazing sound. My primary games I'm playing now are Mass Effect Andromeda, Elite Dangerous, Doom (2016) and Fallout 4.I was seriously looking around for what was making all the new noises I was actually hearing now.*Truly 7.1 audio*Games understand it inherently. Sounds travel as they should.*Supports DirectAudioCons:* Make sure when you're plugging in your speakers you can test each individual port. In the dim light behind my computer case when I went to wire everything up I had everything shifted out of order, and had to redo it after a confusing sound experience. (I'd swapped the center/sub with front, and rear and side surround channels)*Coil whine is present but much more manageable than artifacts coming through from the competition card (Recently returned ASUS STRIX RAID DLX Sound Card] and only discernible when the game / video benchmark has zero audio.About the system under test:i7-6700k watercooled. 32gb / 512gb m2ssdASRock z710m Extreme4Evga 1080 SC2 cardEvga 1000 watt power supply.Razer Tiamat 7.1 headset w. Pyle PT798SBA 7.1 Channel Home Theater System on pass-thru

I'm using this as a step up from onboard audio. It does it's job well and HT Omega offered some stellar support with Windows 10 issues. The drivers are clearly needing some work for Windows 10 and my conversation with an HT Omega CSR shows that they are pushing CMedia to do their part.In terms of SQ, it's very good. I use to have a Asus Essence STX II and, in comparison, this comes up pretty close. Without going into detail I would give the Fenix a 90/100 whilst the STX II would of got a 97 (I prefer the opamps it came with).I'm knocking off one star because I'm getting a lot of hi-frequency noise from the PCI-E interference, whereas my STX II had none (it used external molex power). This indicates to me that the power decoupling on the Fenix could of been better. It's quite irritating to hear my video card whine through my speakers whenever I start up an intensive game. I'm not an expert on PSU or PCI-E power delivery so it could be anything causing this but nevertheless, it's affecting my SQ when my STX II didn't.--------- UPDATE ----------I ended up returning this over the hi frequency noise. In discussion with Jason, the HT Omega CSR, he revealed that the SNR of this device is 105dB which is stunningly low, especially when compared to similar priced sounds cards (Soundblaster Z, Xonar DX). I have tried a friend's Xonar DX and its noise floor is much lower than the Fenix. I could only hear the same hi frequency noises with my ears pressed against the tweeters.I think, for the most part, I'd recommend the Xonar DX over this as they nearly cost the same (the DX is actually cheaper!) and they pretty much use the same opamps (Fenix is all RC4850 and Xonar DX is a combination RC4850 and NE5532). I'll keep my 4 star rating as the SQ was still pretty good, the build quality is far superior to Asus, and the support as been fantastic. It just wasn't a good match for my noisy system.

Was choosing between this and an outboard asus u7 but since i already have an objective2 and a schiit magni 2 uber/modi 2 uber stack i went with the fenix. Also the fact asus has really awful support and the fact that i needed this to replace onboard that took a dive on an asus mobo made me stay clear of asus. Overall I think asus has really gone downhill and my next mobo will be a gigabyte or msi. As for the fenix it was recognized right away by win 10 enterprise. Sounds awesome compared to the now dead onboard realtek sound. Not really sure how it compares to the o2/uber or magni/uber. Really don't know the output impedance of the headphone output. I thought twice because of the snr figure of only 100db but since the objective 2 by jds labs really doesn't specify it i didn't take much stock in it. If you've read the blog by nwavguy you'll know that the figure is most likely the snr of the dac chip and really isn't representative of its true performance when coupled with the analog output stage. It sounds clean. It has all the outputs. The package was clean and undinged. I really love this card. It fit in the top pcie x1 slot on my mobo above an sli gtx970 setup. I figure I can move the card when i switch to a single gtx1080 ti. Overall great card from a company based in CA.