kadak

In early Tiger days I have a Epox i865 motherboard, the same situation. Problem was... capacitors near Processor (6pcs) was blown up.
I have also EP45-UD3LR, the capacitors on the motherboard is obviously High Quality ones... weird if there is the problem.
I use it rarely and with SL10.6.8, I don't remember similar problems (yet ). But this model is produced in 2008, there is possibility of capacitor problems.

No, recording is not possible at all with original driver. We can only hear the "SPDIF In" signal, but signal is routed digitally in wrong way, no one of recording apps don't "hear" anything from inputs (Juli@ is listed as input device!).

For recording, only Envy24HT Installer is suitable (yeah it's limited for frequency formats, but the two formats are possible in high quality after all).
Btw. if Amarra player is installed, I got normally even 192kHz playable (weird, Amarra is messing something with CoreAudio), I not tested recording possibility of that frequency yet.

OT: Sorry, I never learned english in any way, so it may be not so understandable if I wrote something .

Jap, it's works... partially. With SL10.6.8 (clean Retail), all output modes, formats works. Frequency change, initiated by CoreAudio, is working. For playback from computer with internal clock, all is OK. Only thing, analog and digital out can't work in same time, we need to change output from Audio/MIDI Setup panel.
Inputs are dead. Audition, Audacity and AudioRecorder3.2 don't see ANY incoming signal. SPDIF In is working somehow, with distorted and low level signal. If some CoreAudio device is active, level improves (not fully) and distortion is cone. External clock via SPDIF In not work, Control Panel not show any frequency changes if external clock is changed...

If someone wants to record, the audiodriverwriter driver is the only way (at the moment). Analog inputs are useable, with 44,1kHz or 88,2kHz 24Bit .

Maybe PCIe version behavior is different. ESI first new driver says: minimum OS 10.5.8, PCI and PCIe versions are supported. Later driver only installs stuff and not provided any info.
Sad story in overall.

Maybe later I try out with Lion 10.7.5 and ML, but I am not very optimistic.

I not replaced the DAC in Juli@... yes, I have some ideas to redirect I2S signal to external WM8741 DAC (to avoid jitter), but it's more sensible if we using for that Juli@'s digital out - like Bryston did. Bryston don't contain any DAC inside, only Auraliti uses Juli@ card fully.
In hardware Juli@ uses the DAC for digital commutation driven by DirectWire app - this leads to conclusion: it monitors digital I/O with an absolute zero delay... and we need the DAC for that!
http://www.ixbt.com/.../scheme-big.png

Headphone out is technically easy task, some says Juli@ can driven headphones relativelly well. I prefered dedicated amplifier section for that, build or buyed separately. Even then we need pay attention to power supply for amplification, PC power is not so clean as needed if used directly for analog amplification.

  This is far far away from topic for now, I think ...

I don't see a point of buying Bryston BDA-1 or Auraliti PK100, if I can build things myself and comparable (if not better) quality - and running Mac OS on it instead sort of limited linux....