Lynx PCIe AES interfaces: AES16 and E22

f**k yes! I've been waiting for you guys to go nuts on this stuff. I can't have my BW but this makes me happy

 

I found the change from USB disorienting at first, actually. It's like "Wait a f'ing second. What's going on here?!?" Same computer? Check. Same DAC? Check. Same ZDS? Check. WTF!

 

what's going on here is USB is getting bukakeed.

can't wait to get the missing part tomorrow. dammit you're all a bunch of teases.

 

@brencho - you just gave @Marvey another term to look up to go along with hentai

 

http://www.mouser.com/Search/Produc...-5virtualkey57100000virtualkey571-1-1478762-5
http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=1658671-1virtualkey57100000virtualkey571-1658671-1
http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=1658670-4virtualkey57100000virtualkey571-1658670-4
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Neutrik/NC3FXCC/?qs=2AuUxvzm3x/prO6qkcGdUg==
That Neutrik connector has extra shielding.
Used Belden 1800F for cable

The pinout: http://www.lynxstudio.com/pop/product_file.asp?i=60

I ended up crimping and soldering the contacts as I bought the wrong size crimp tool. Not necessary or worth it.

 

My first response to this thread was "I use an iMac how the hell am I supposed to use this Lynx thingie? Should I just buy a new PC for this?" But now there seems to be a solution.

 

All, is a chassis mandatory for the PCIe card?

 

Nice to see the thunderbolt cage works as advertised. I'm very curious to see the Lynx/Rednet bakeoff. This guy: http://www.atterotech.com/products/dante-aes-o/ (as posted in the nervosa thread I think) is about $600 so in the same realm as the Lynx card. $30 gets you the Audinate ASIO virtual sound card which is peanuts, and you have a two channel Dante setup up to 96khz via laptop without cages and stuff, or that frigging breakout cabling to deal with.

 

If you don't have a machine with a PCIe slot, yes. The TB cages I believe only work on Mac at present with the Lynx cards.

 

That was also my first thought. My second thought was how deep down the rabbit hole am I that I would consider this.

 

I'm still on the fence between these three "get out of USB jail" devices:

Lynx E22 (PCI-E Audio interface)
Digigram VX222e (PCI-E Audio interface)
Attero Tech unDAES-O (Dante to AES)

Dante is too much bleeding edge technology and overly technical to setup but it could be the best sounding as it pretty much bypasses the noisy PC subsystem.

 

Well, not sure I've ever started a thread here. But instead of carrying on conversations in private, this is what I did to get Lynx up tonight. It's not just plug and play on the Mac but not too bad either. RKML provided real time moral support.

Materials:
Lynx E22 PCIe card
Akitio Thunder2 PCIe chassis (or pick your preferred chassis)
Lynx CBL-L22Sync-G (HD15 to 2 XLR & 2 BNC)

Note: Do not buy the Lynx "audio" cable or any other cable unless you know what you're doing. If you don't necessarily know what you're doing, buy the cable I specified. This is the exact cable I referred to above:
http://www.lynxstudio.com/product_detail.asp?i=38

Ok so then the stuff arrives.... RTFM. http://www.lynxstudio.com/nav/getFile.asp?i=129&t=productfile

The manual is not a masterpiece, but not bad. These are the basic steps. Seems kind of long, but it's not...

1. Unscrew the spring loaded screws on the back open the chassis and the guts slide out of the front. You can just use fingers, they're not tight.
2. On the E22 PCIe card find the 4 DIP switches, and select "PROM 2" mode. There is a legend printed on the PCB with the settings. It's 1,2,4 down. 3 up. We're going to install firmware in a minute, and this DIP setting is how the card will take the firmware update. 1,2,4 down. 3 up.
3. There are also jumpers for AES vs SPDIF. The card can NOT output both, and mine defaulted to AES. I didn't change jumpers because I wanted AES. The legend on the PCB tells you what to do if you what SPDIF.
4. Install the card in the PCIe slot and screw it down to the chassis. Just like a PC. Leave the cover off for now.
5. Turn on the Mac.
6. Download and install Lynx drivers for OSX. Click this link to download: http://www.lynxstudio.com/upload/Lynx_OSX_58B.zip
7. The computer should reboot. If not, reboot that mofo.
8. Now connect the 12VDC power and a Thunderbolt cable to the chassis.
9. Connect the Thunderbolt cable to the Mac too.
10. Now we install the latest firmware. Download this file:
http://www.lynxstudio.com/upload/FWUpdate.OSX.20160518.zip
11. Double click the FWUpdater proggy you just downloaded. OK, now if it says something like "Only the following cards are supported: X Y Z", you did something wrong. Repeat the above steps. You probably got the DIP settings wrong somehow. Unpower the thing, and fix it.
12. Now firmware is installed.
13. Power the chassis down, disconnect, and change the DIP settings to 1,2,3 down, 4 up. You're moving 3 from up to down, and 4 from down to up now.
14. You're done with DIPs. You can put the chassis cover back on, then power back up and reconnect to your Mac.
15. In MIDI or System Sound you should see the Lynx E22 as an option, and you can select it.
16. Now when you go in to Audirvana and press play, there probably won't be any sound. There wasn't for me.
17. There's this application that got installed called Lynx Mixer. It's in Applications. Open it.
18. Now if you didn't get sound, you'll probably see the Analog (Aout) is active instead of the Digital output. This software is kind of shitty. Those M's are MUTE buttons. Mute the "1 Aout 2", then select "Digital Out 1" and unmute. Presto, music.



There's got to be a way to make step 18 sticky. But I don't know what that way is yet. So I've had to open the mixer each time I start Audirvana and change it.

OH and the chassis fan is super annoying. I'm going to disconnect it. I might drill some vent holes in the top of the chassis.

 

Boom. Look Mom, no USB cables!

 

Dante just recently joined the AES67 standard, which is great news for interoperability between Dante and Ravenna (and presumably others in future), and in turn for consumer products in this space like the Merging NADAC.

IMO if you don't have an available PCIe slot, I'd go down the AOIP road as that is a journey into the future. For example a small single-channel Dante device (if it existed) could be coupled with an active monitor to get surround architectures implemented with CAT5 cabling. No need for XLR and balanced lines as the bridge would be sitting right next to the input. In fact Genelec has an AOIP monitor, the 8430A that takes ethernet as an input. It won't be long 'til there are consumer actives that work the same way. The possibilities become compelling.

 

So instead of a cheap passive surround monitor with a single speaker cable, you need atleast two power cables along with ethernet.

I hardly see what AOIP brings to a normal home anyway. You can't even roll DACs.

 

Well of course you can still roll DACs and amps, it's really the transport that's changing. But given that generally consumers don't give a shit about DACs and amps this is an area that business will go for. Normal homes don't 'roll DACs' .

If you don't believe me just look at Apple removing the audio jack from the iPhone. That implies in-headphone DACs (as all bluetooth devices have). Apple has like 65% of the consumer headphone market through Beats, if I'm correct, and will surely drive that market digital.

Face it...audiophiles are like people who buy stickshift cars. Anachronistic purists with more money than brains. Uber driverless is the future, as are shitty on-chip on-device DACs and Amps.

I've always liked the fringe, so that's fine by me.

 

thank you !!!!!!

 

My point is, that AOIP can be two things (ignoring pro audio use):

- A stupid and unneeded extra transport layer in an audiophoolery chain
- A simple full digital path directly to a speaker

For bog standard consumers, I don't see either bringing "compelling possibilities". Most people don't care about 22.4.8 surround setups with all active monitors. Wiring up a passive 5.1 or 7.1 system is much easier than phooling around with ethernet. A proper working audio-over-wireless might bring some benefits.

 

Yes, I see your point. I suppose I'm thinking about folks who have a bit more to spend on their home systems and have installation involved (in wall speakers etc.). Bog standard probably wants 7.1 over bluetooth to be honest.