Lynx PCIe AES interfaces: AES16 and E22

just checked the price of aria piccolo and aurender w20.... clearly not in the same ballpark.
Maybe they are in the same ballpark when comparing the lynx PCIe card + enclosure + macbook (or whatever else)...

As anybody compared lynx PCIe Aes16e (or e22) vs something like the digi+ ? or vs the auralic aries?

 

I'm talking about the Aria 2 without the DAC. Which can be had second hand for around 2.5kusd. My PC+lynx is about the same. But i see your point.
Honestly I don't compare products on price, much of the market is inflated in price but if they are comparable in performance the value of the margin is up to the individual.
The Aries vs Lynx would be great read, however I can get the Aria for the Aries price from a friend. So I will give it a go and get back to you guys.

 

Ordered some parts to hookup the lynx to a pci-e riser cable and a lps internally. Was first just going to do the riser thing since it's right next to my videocard which is a passive model. Obviously got me a bit nervous so i directed a fan on it, but i want to keep more distance between them for both thermal and possible interference issues. And then i thought why not do more...

Plan is to use my lps usb psu and then use a usb b connector on the case so i can keep the lps external. And then connect some wires from the usb port to the pci-e ribbon. Pci-e and usb both use 5v so it should be good, and the psu is a really high performance one so maybe it will sound even better. Obviously will test the whole setup for a bit with an old pci-e card before i commit the lynx to it. I wonder how much power the lynx card will draw, i know a 16x slot can pull 75w from the slot and 1x does about 10w, i think the usb spec calls for a max of 5w which i know my psu can do atleast. I think i'll mail Lynx and see if they can tell me the power draw from aes16e.

Will post pics if anyone is interested.

 

I'll should be receiving my rme 9632 today + riser card, so I'd like to see your setup to compare if you don't mind.

 

Will do then, if i'm lucky the parts should be here on saturday. Also please post pics of your setup

 

Interesting point.
Apart from the auralic aries. I've noted the moon mind. Both have aes.
Are there any other units do you guys know that can represent all in one boxes/bridges between the source files and the dac. I guess it is preferable to has aes connection. The cost might be similar to the lynx and enclosure.

 

There's also a Bel Canto renderer with AES or BNC outputs that might be interesting!

 

I wonder how the sound quality of the Lynx compares to a universal disk player via coax playing high res FLACs burned to DVD-A or Blu Ray disks.

 

The Lynx will, at least, let you output your high-resolution files as a digital-stream.

I don't know of any disc players that'll let you output high-resolution DVD-A to S/PDIF or AES at full-resolution. Quite a few will do so over either a proprietary connection (to the same company's own DACs) but most will force you to use HDMI for that and there-in your choice of DACs diminishes significantly.

 

Yeah the SACD on an Oppo is a great example. It's not actually native DSD that goes through any output connection except HDMI...

But there are hacks to get an Oppo or PS3 to rip those DVD-A or SACD discs and then you can get that file and play whatever you want, downsample to 24/172 etc

 

Pioneer BDP-160 & BDP-170 is a cheaper option to rip SACD's
Bought mine for about $150

 

Are you suggesting burning your own hi-res files to DVD-A or Blu-ray?

 

Yes, but I decided to go a different route (Bluesound Node 2) when I found out that Blu Ray players are limited to 24/48 for burned discs.

 

I have a couple of questions regarding the RME 9632. Firstly, what's the most one should pay for a second hand card? How much have people paid for theirs? There are a few on ebay at the moment, but the sellers are not accepting my offers. Secondly, I noticed that some of the cards have a metal box for the crystal oscillator, whereas others (the majority) have something that resembles an IC package. I was wondering what the difference is and whether it is important?

 

I'm interested in a pic. I have a giant video card that would get in the way of pci-e and was looking for solutions.

 

I'm still waiting on the riser cable unfortunately, i knew this deal was to good to be true. Will order from somewhere else i guess..

 

hi why not get a separate thunderbolt enclosure seems like the best solution imo for complete isolation

 

I recently purchased a used PCI rme 9632 including three sets of standard breakouts, optical/coaxial cables, and a set of balanced breakouts for $275 including shipping from ebay. But had to return it because of driver parity issues with two of my computers. (Riser extension didn't work out)

But I see cards alone hover between $175-225 USD buyout where I'm from.

 

Well because that's easily 400€(case and card) which is not something i'm willing to spend on something that might not even be noticeable.

 

As @Yeskey says around $200 US is reasonable. I bought one on ebay from the UK with all stock breakout cables for about this price. But you can find them lower if you are patient. If Gungnir Multibit is your only use case for the card, it's likely cheaper to find one without breakout cables and either make up a custom cable yourself or get one made up for you by someone like redco (around $20 US + shipping).