TC konnekt 8, Poor man's AES16

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Shinwami, Nov 13, 2016.

  1. Shinwami

    Shinwami New

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    Minasan konnichiwa!

    Rules first
    1, Konnekt 8, X32 and SK48 are the only three interfaces you could choose from TC. X32 and SK48 are better than the K8 but you gotta do some mods first, so K8 is the way to go, and much cheaper. (K8 sounds best when these three are all unmoded.)
    2, If you go for the AES16, stick with the PCI ver no matter what. AES16e uses different digital main chip, the result is not as good as the original. AES16 is the best sounding PC card among the Lynx PC-card line. (I mean all PC cards from Lynx, PCI/PCIe included)
    3, stay away from RME, AES16 is far more better than RME. This may hurts someone who is using RME right now, I'm sorry, bro. (believe it or not, i joke you not, this is not hip-hop, nothing here is too shocked, i swear to todd)


    K8 is slighty worse than AES16. (all AES16 I'm talking about from right here is the PCI version.) And with AES16 you could feed it with some damn good clock, and it scales a lot, yes, a lot. K8 has no WC clock option, so they have distance, but not too big.

    You could pick a K8 from ebay under $200 or even $150. What you should prepare is buying a FW PCIe card for your PC and don't forget the FW cable. And forget about the original adapter, just use FW bus to power it. Finding a good adapter/PSU = extra money. (Actually the mods on the X32/SK48 which I mentioned above is replacing the original switch power supplies in the X32/SK48, but, a big but incites us the hard part is their PSU is different from those common interfaces', hell, just forget about this too, their PSU is +/- DC which is not + DC which we come across most of the time which all the interfaces we talk about use. You can't find a decent one except build it yourself... I rather find a PSU for K8 which is pretty common. K8 scales too.) USB is still hopeless right now, and pretty expensive. Some other exotic interfaces are also expensive as hell.

    PS, TB Hilo as a TB interface completely surpasses the AES16 no matter how hard you try such as linking the AES16 with some good clock, but a good TB cable may costs you $180. No mention the mobo.
    Like I said just a few seconds ago, expensive.

    Tech is, I don't know, newer and newer, sometimes it becomes crazy, of course new things do better than the old ones, but not too affordable. I must admit AES16 is a great solution, but in some sense it becomes rarer and rarer, harder and harder to get, and this's sad.

    Don't be too serious, all in all we are just some old farts who consider this (so-called hobby) too much.
     
  2. Minbeo

    Minbeo New

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    First, thanks for your advice, i came across a good price K8 the other day so i told myself "why not ?" and bought it. Powered by a 12v LPS (its polarity is reversed btw) feeding Schiit Modi Multibit, it sounds better than my Singxer SU1 + F1: Most recognized is better staging+dynamic, the music just flows a bit better. Details are the same but Singxers sound more artificial sharpen, more compressed by comparison.
    I heard quite a bit of complains of TC Konnekt's compatibility and reliability but mine works perfectly fine with a Win 10 machine, for 250$ (include LPS+Firewire card+cables) i'll keep it.
     
  3. JayNYC

    JayNYC Friend

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    @Shinwami Hi, am curious what you think of TC Konnekt Live and Impact Twin in stock form as a SPDIF transport vs Konnekt 8 and SK48. You didn't mention either of these interfaces.
     
  4. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    I honestly have never heard of this audio external card. Thanks for bringing it up.

    EDIT: Are these interfaces discontinued? Any current alternative options from TC or competitors?
     
    Last edited: May 13, 2017
  5. Shinwami

    Shinwami New

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    Konnekt Live and Impact Twin and Konnekt 8/24 use the same PCB board, but as you assume, the Live and Impact Twin have better mic pre-amp. We don't need mic amp.
     
  6. Shinwami

    Shinwami New

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    Don't worry, the whole company is dead. Most of the competitors... are also dead. AES16 PCI version is the first choice, I know someone here grabbed one for $20 including stock cables, I said to myself, godamit, what a lucky barstard.
     

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