ubercake :
Sound cards like this are a hard sell these days considering even my mainstream Z370 board has excellent on-board sound with an on-board headphone amp.
I'd go even further & say that sound cards in general are a hard sell these days, even for gamers. Heck, I know my system is far from top-line, but its motherboard (
Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 version 4.1) supports not only my 2 speakers but 5.1 & even 7.1 surround sound (including Dolby Home Theater & S/PDIF Out). Considering that when I'm listening to music or other audio it's either a) coming out of my TV or PC speakers, b) coming out of the speakers in my car, or c) from headphones plugged into a 3.5mm jack, I don't really need anything fancier than what my motherboard has built in...
And this is a
fancy sound card. Yes, I know pretty much any digital device has a DAC of some sort in it, but this particular DAC (the AK4493) is at least inching towards high-end (if not on the high end). And that AK5572, per AKM's
website, is apparently for when you want to delve deeply into mixing, sampling, & recording your own audio streams at a very high fidelity rate, something that most gamers (even most streamers) aren't going to be concerned about. Heck, I would guess that most Twitchers & other streamers are happy just as long as what they record over their headsets is at least halfway understood by their audience; they're not concerned about getting the sound so crisp, clear & natural-sounding that you'd swear you were sitting right next to them.
This is going to be a high-end niche device, & I don't know how much they're going to be able to compete. It's not like they have a name in computer audio, let alone audio systems (I mean, heck, if it was Creative Labs or SoundBlaster, I'd be impressed for at least the nostalgia value...).