Posted on Wednesday, 18th April 2007 by Auw Jimmy

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I’ve just received my Onkyo SE-90PCI from my friend at Singapore. Thanks bro :) . Before I spend my time to mod it, I take some photos. Enjoy it.

The photo of the Onkyo SE-90PCI. A simple, half PCI sound card.


A little bit closer photo. We can see three op-amps, one DAC, one DSP, and some mid-to-high quality capacitors.


Another view from the side. This card only provide 2 analog output and 1 Optical out. No Coaxial (sorry!).


A closed up photo at the DSP. Onkyo chooses VIA Envy24 MT. Not a sophisticated chipset, but should be fit for a stereo application like this SE-90PCI.


We can see the capacitors around the DAC (Wolfson WM8716). They provide filtering for the WM8716′s power supply pins. I haven’t checked them all, will examine later when I mod the card.


For the output coupling, Onkyo pick the Elna Silmic II. One of the best capacitor around. I wonder to have BG NX Hi-Q series there.


Onkyo picks the Nichicon for supply filtering application. Not the best capacitors around, but perhaps one of the best for a consumer class sound card.


Aha… an Sanyo Os-Con. Very popular capacitor for Digital-to-Analog application. I think this is the perfect “man” at perfect position.


Three op-amps on the photo. I think they are based on Texas Instrument’s NE5532AP. Again, perhaps these are not the best op-amp available on the market. My Analog Device AD825 perhaps will sound better? ;) Just perhaps!


“Dual-mono” design. Onkyo separates their left and right signal channel to provide better signal separation. We also can see a copper plate to prevent the noise from the left to right channel and vice versa.


I think both yellow circle on the photo above are the clock oscillators. But the frequency? I think 22.579 is still common number. But the 49.152? Well, quite difficult.

Huge and well designed plane. The designer really knows what he/she is doing!


A special tape used to protect the noise between components. Not everyone believes that such tape can provide significant improvement.

That’s all folks. Will examine the sound quality later. I’ve listened for about 1 hour while typing this article. My first impression is quite positive. My current sound card is EMU1820M. Will provide some small comparison later.



Posted in DIY Audio | Comments (15)

15 Responses to “Onkyo SE-90PCI: A Real Audiophile’s Sound Card?”

  1. M0b1us Says:
    April 18th, 2007 at 19:18

    Give the SC about 1 week for burn-in period…and it will sound better and better :)
    Nice review….:)



  2. Didhan Says:
    April 18th, 2007 at 23:54

    Wow… the picture suprising me. No more patience seeing “what You write” after moded.
    thanks



  3. rd411topan Says:
    April 19th, 2007 at 23:10

    Nice review bro :)
    Try removing the special tape and you’ll “see” the difference (i’ve tried it and placed it back again of course)



  4. inux77 Says:
    April 21st, 2007 at 19:03

    wew, dual mono design shocking me…., btw how much price?



  5. Jimmy Auw Says:
    April 21st, 2007 at 19:46

    Around US$ 100.



  6. jikky Says:
    April 22nd, 2007 at 00:28

    Hey, I’m rather new to these stuff, thus i’m wondering, how do we connect our multimedia speakers to this soundcard, considering that there is usually only one input cable to be connected to one output jack, whereas there are two output jacks in this case. And, is it possible to use a subwoofer with this soundcard?



  7. Jimmy Auw Says:
    April 22nd, 2007 at 13:17

    You can use converter cable from 1/8″ TRS jack to 2xRCA.



  8. Andy Tan Says:
    May 6th, 2007 at 01:51

    Nice Review Mr. Jim^^, cant hardly wait till you finish da Mod soon.



  9. Jimmy Auw Says:
    May 6th, 2007 at 12:00

    Upload fotonya donk bro Andy…



  10. gts_zone Says:
    January 9th, 2008 at 23:42

    nice sound card, but to bad it doesn’t had analog output for multi channel speaker



  11. Zhuge_Liang Says:
    April 14th, 2008 at 01:18

    mas jimmi

    tape untuk melindungi komponen, itu tape khusus kah?

    atau yg penting asal tape tebal?



  12. atx Says:
    October 16th, 2008 at 03:03

    “nice sound card, but to bad it doesn’t had analog output for multi channel speaker”

    Obviously you’re not the target. Try Sound Blaster.



  13. andy Says:
    March 23rd, 2010 at 12:57

    bro jimm saya kalo mau mod kena beraap ya ? onkyo se90 saya.. soalnya ada yg aneh neh.. suara kiri ama kanan beda kapastiasnya



  14. Jimmy Auw Says:
    March 23rd, 2010 at 21:24

    Sorry bro saya ga terima mod. Coba main ke forum CHIP, cari yang nicknya DoubleO. Coba aja kontak dia, bilang aja rekomen dari saya.
    Thanks.



  15. onkyo se-90pci - Zerotohundred.com Says:
    May 21st, 2011 at 08:29

    [...] onkyo se-90pci for further reading Jimmy’s Junkyard [...]



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