Lynx PCIe AES interfaces: AES16 and E22

I was one of the guys to hear the difference and stand by it.
Instead of making assumptions did you even care comparing it yourself? If not why bother.

 

I've been using Foobar for awhile, so yes, I have technically compared the different versions.

But it's always possible that my ears lack sufficient acuity and my system sufficient transparency, so why bother.

 

Says the guy who can't hear headstage.

 

No one is hearing "true speaker soundstage" on headphones. Aside from binaural (which is far from perfect) recordings aren't optimized for headphone reproduction.

I envy those people who have to listen to good speakers to realize that headphones can't image like speakers. Or rather, I don't.

As I've said before, approaching headphone staging from a speaker perspective and assigning specific distance measurements is missing the point. None of this changes the fact that a headphone with closed-in staging in one or more dimensions can be distracting to the point of being a deal-breaker. I'm sure some will point out that this could apply to all headphones, and that's fine.

 

How would a DAC be optimized for headphones?

 

That would be retarded

as headphones are headphones. Lavry makes good DACs though.

 

So why didn't you consider it while reading my foobar comparison ?

 

I've had a Digigram vx222e installed for a couple days and wanted to share very initial impressions vs. wyrd USB, may update if I feel I can articulate better later. Chain is Digigram vx222e > Sescom AES to BNC adapter/transformer > 75ohm BNC cable > Gungnir Multibit > Jensen isobox > Zana Deux > HD800 SDR (and Eikon a little)

• Immediately noticeable, kinda scary actually. To put in perspective a couple weeks ago I was comparing ways to connect Gungnir Multibit to ZD (just RCA, jensen isobox, XLR to RCA cable...etc) and really strained to find anything substantial besides noise floor. This is much more apparent, not night-and-day, but not subtle.
• Depth of stage hit immediately, almost as if there was some kind of semi-binaural effect, but I don't think width is affected. Instruments have a more exact position within the stage, especially higher pitched ones
• The upper mids/lower treble is more apparent. But I don't think its an FR thing, but rather they sound more crisp and exact in tone and placement. More detail is born out in things like reverberations of strings and bells, unsure if this is added resolution or just improved crispness/clarity?
• Glarey HD800 highs are noticeably less of an issue, it's like the screen of a window was removed. Unsure if this translates to less fatigue developing yet
• Bass is completely unchanged?

Really impressed. Considering the ebay'd Digigram card plus adapters and cables was $300, a clear boon to my setup, especially at ~9% the value of the chain. But that said, I wouldn't bother doing all this with a second system that was more modest, especially considering you can't just throw a PCI card into anything.

 

@PoochZag - welcome to reduced jitter. Reducing jitter lowers frequency smearing, making everything clearer and more defined, as well as improving spatial cues. It also makes things less tiring for your brain, as it improves intelligibility of the sound.

Bass is probably apparently unchanged because the higher frequencies are the ones most adversely affected by the jitter- high frequency distortions occur more readily. Timing errors represent a larger proportion of the "peak to peak" distance of the fundamental frequency, when the frequency is higher.

Phase noise is a bitch. It causes sidebands around the fundamental, hence the "smearing" or "defocussing" that you can hear in the sound.

 

I see Digigram vx222 v2s for dirt cheap (comparatively). Does anyone know if there is any reason they wouldn't work just as well (assuming drivers worked still)? I want to get the best possible sound into my Fulla 2.

 

Look like they are PCI and not PCIe. Go for it only if you have an old motherboard with real PCI slots. (Current mobos with PCI slots - if you can find them - are bridged).