hoppingpulse :
I want to buy the oem version of the sound blaster z sound card, to solely use with headphones through an optical connection. The card would be seated between two gpu's. Would the oem version that doesn't have the shroud for emi shielding be okay, or do you think there would be interference? Is interference even possible through an optical connection and headphones?
If I read your post correctly, you are saying there is an optical cable from the soundcard to your headphones (never seen a headphones directly connected via optical but OK taking your word for it) then your concern doesn't matter.
Em interference only affects analog signal, if the signal comes out of the soundcard on an optical cable, it means the signal is still in its digital format and it's not affected by em noise.