Lynx PCIe AES interfaces: AES16 and E22

Just saw the ebay listing for the AES16 w/ cables drop from $300 to $229 w/ $25 shipping from Canada. Glad I was patient enough to hold off for the price drop!!

 

I am experiencing an intermittent "static" sound with my Lynx E22 that I'm trying to sort out. So far, it appears to only happen when using Audirvana.

I have a 2013 rMBP running Audirvana 2.5.3, hooked up to a new Sonnett ThunderBolt 2 enclosure (containing a new Lynx E22). At work I have a few other peripherals connected to the machine, including a ThunderBolt dock. Feeding the Lynx through an AES->BNC transformer into the Gungnir Multibit, I experience frequent crackling noise. It is definitely worse with 192kHz files than with 44.1kHz.

I brought everything home, and although my DAC at home has AES, I wanted to see if the SPDIF problem remained. Same rMBP, but without the extra peripherals, and a different DAC. Still getting the same crackling with SPDIF/BNC. Reconfigured the Lynx for AES and went directly into the DAC with the Lynx cable. Same problem of crackle. USB doesn't sound as good musically, but has no crackling at all.

If I use the TIDAL app for Mac, I don't hear any crackling. The tracks are capped at 44.1kHz, but I don't hear any of the crackles I hear with Audirvana at 44.1kHz.

I've tinkered with the Audirvana settings but didn't land on anything that cures the issue. Any suggestions?

 

Suggestion.

Shut down Audirvana. Then in the Lynx Mixer, Settings -> Advanced -> Hardware Buffer Size. Take it off Auto, and try 64. If that helps, try working your way down to the lowest manual setting that still works. And I'm not sure if this matters over Thunderbolt but can't hurt, in Audirvana preferences Audio System turn off integer mode and turn on direct mode.

 

@bazelio - Thanks! That definitely improved things, but didn't eliminate it completely. It also introduced a couple of dropouts.

Reverting back to the TIDAL app reminds me of why I was so excited when Audirvana started supporting TIDAL directly. CPU usage is awful. But wow, it sounds amazing through the Lynx. I'll have to stick with it until I can sort out the crackles - they're just too jarring.

 

The Lynx Mixer is a bit of a CPU hog too. It doesn't present a problem for my MBP, but maybe if your CPU capacity is lower and you're running other CPU intensive apps, or if you're letting Audirvana do sample rate conversion, etc. In my case, I initially had a few minor and intermittent pops and ticks, but I think hardware buffer adjustment is what eliminated them. I kind of liked them, though. It reminded me of being at @drfindley 's. Well, sorta. OK, not really.

 

Straight out of the box this thing is good. I have long thought my set up of MSI gaming mobo - SPDIF - SFD-mkii was not ideal. Running Lynx 16e straight to my AES input it is very apparent I had some issues. I'll have to switch back and fourth to better understand, however I am very glad for OJNEG and some other folks here who pointed me in this direction.

 

I bought a fancy USB cable a few months ago, which clearly improved what I was hearing through USB to my Gungnir Multibit. The Lynx card brings at least as much of an improvement over that cable, if not more. Definitely appreciate the tip here. I need another BNC cable so I can try out my OCX.

@bazelio - I'll keep playing with buffer size. I had most apps closed, including the Lynx Mixer. It seems once you have the settings tweaked, you can close it, thankfully. You;re right about it being a CPU hog.

 

So I have a weird problem. When I set my computer to sleep in the evening, and then wake it up in the morning, the Lynx will only output a highly distorted, spacy alien kind of sound. There is some variability of volume and pitch (maybe related to the playing music?), but not a ton.

To fix it, I have to STOP (not pause) playing in JRMC, set the default playback device in Windows 7 to another device, and then play again in JRMC. After that I can reset the default device back to the Lynx AES16e.

WEIRD EH? Driver issue? JRMC? Anyone else experiencing this?

Other details: Upon wakeup of the PC, the weird spacy sound will happen no matter where playback is originating (i.e. YouTube, etc. etc.).

 

Crackle is gone for now. Sound is... amazeballs. So much more engaging. You guys rock.

 

When I was looking at various "matching" transfomers, I had wondered about the reason several were available with and without 10db attenuation. I happened across this article,
http://www.rane.com/note149.html

 

Airy, natural, textured. Feels like an all-you-can-eat plankton buffet.

 

I should be getting my AES16 by Thursday or so. I look forward to confirming what you guys have already said about the Lynx. The Transient didn't really do much for me over USB gen 3 and the differences could have very well just been placebo.

 

Second day in the PC. Running (non-e version) Lynx AES16 -> NAD m51 -> BW2 -> HD650m.
I'm so happy. This is the best digital audio have sounded to my ears. The differences are not huge, but very noticeable.

I have AB'd with the usb input (running wyrd) and my conclusions are that it doesn't affect frequency response in any way. The biggest effect IMO is in layering. What I mean by that is that the music doesn't force itself on you. It's like listening on a heavy bricked walled modern album like "Californication" and a good old prog album like "Selling England By the Pound". Especially in the drums, where in modern bad masters you hear that they hit the snare drum, while in the better mastered album you can hear how they hit the snare.

That is the difference between USB (even with wyrd) and the Lynx. Suffice to say, I've been going through my old prog albums and finally listened to how the musicscape is layered and how the musicians played their instruments.

 

An absolute classic.

 

Yup, got my Lynx AES16 early today and tried it out. I'm probably reiterating what others here have already said, but this is what I noticed with my speakers.

• Music is more fluid and effortless
• I'm getting a much better sense of the distance between instruments inside of a stage
• Sounds that pan across the stage are more precise
• Blacker background, allowing sounds and instruments to pop out more
• Better layering of sounds
• Sounds in the background during quiet sessions of a track are more tangible... and almost eerie

There's definitely more of a noticeable difference going from the Yggdrasil USB to the Lynx AES16 than to the CI Audio Transient MK II. I'll be listening more over the weekend to see what else I notice.

 

Update on the crackling/static sound I was hearing, and previously mentioned. It is gone now, and I may know the culprit.

When I first installed the driver for the Lynx E22 on my Mac, the Lynx Mixer showed a bunch of channel mixers - maybe 16, not sure. Audirvana showed an option to either select a 15.1 configuration, or use all channels for stereo. After adjusting the settings in the Lynx Mixer to 4 channels, the crackling seems to have disappeared. Audirvana now shows an option for a 3.1 configuration, or stereo. Note: selecting 2 channels only supports analog, therefore digital wouldn't be in play.

I am not sure how to reset the driver to its initial post-install state, so I can't confirm this is the case. I'm posting here in case anyone else runs into it, in the hopes that it helps.

 

Silly question but whats the difference between the e22 and aes16

 

The E22 has a D/A converter in it, so it can be used for an analog signal out to an amp.

 

Edit: Scratch that, I too have cracking and occasional clipping. I thought it was my dac. But yeh seems it might be lynx..

Edit 2: I actually have no idea what issue is.. could be dac/dac tubes/amp or lynx. It only happens in certain songs.

Edit: Main suspect is lynx
i get random dips in the audio, random crackling.. rolling tubes in the dac didn't fix it.changing cans didn't fix it.

Running Lynx AES PCiE 16 break out snake straight to AES of sfd-1mk ii > rag > abyss