Yes, you read it right.  I prefer to experiment with every piece of audio gear I get in hope of pushing its sound quality further then the designers did on their specific budget.  There are really only a few places for easy modifications on this card, let’s have a look:

Opamp Replacement

These chips have become the talk of most audio forums as of late, as to where they are, what do they do and how do I improve them?  Good news, ASUS has left the opamps in sockets so you can change them out with relative ease.  I ran tests using commonly found audio opamps that many may have on hand.  I think we will look at replacing the generic units found in the I/V section, let’s pull out those JRC 2114D’s and try out:

OPA2134

Let’s try one of the common audio opamps found and suggested around the audio forums.  This audio opamps seemed to add a bit more heft to the bass and midrange while keeping a similar gloss in the high end.  The clarity remains but is changed somewhat for a more laidback type of sound.