I would have to say that this was quite the upgrade for my sound card. I have been using the essence STX for a while and as soon as I switched the op-amps out I could clearly tell the difference in quality, bass, and sound stage. I tested the audio with DT990 Pro 250OHM, ATH AD-700, and ATH-M50x. Every pair of cans sounded much better in all categories. Overall I would say it’s a nice upgrade if you already have a bunch of money put into your setup. I found a user who cut a chunk of the metal plate off in order to fix the 2 op-amps for headphone audio. I am thinking of doing this since I don’t use RCA much.