Put the money into better speakers. Speakers happen to distort hundreds of times more than soundcards. It's kind of like investing $100 into a better product, or $100 into an ancillary product that merely *supports* the main product. The utility gains are vastly different.
I hear the Klipsch 5.1 Ultras are $199 now.
But if you must, then you really should try it out yourself while understanding you have a 30-day return. Nobody can tell you if a slightly adjust EQ algorithm like EAX5 is going to make a huge difference over EAX4 but yourself.
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread
