Dear all,

I am now searching a great sound card for my audio enjoyment and my friends suggest me to buy Lynx Studio Technology AES16 for great sound quality output.

After my searching about this card, I notice AES16 focuses on both playback and recording functions, especially excellent on recording function. However, I play music rather than recoding it at most time.

But my friends said most people with AES16 use this card as an audio card and seldom use recording function as well. I know they wanna me feel released to go for it. But is it true !? I know I would pay much more for the better sound quality, but I really don’t want to waste my money for extra some function I would seldom use...

I have one of these Lynx soundcards along with a RME 9632 (in different computers) both cards are very good regarding sound, the RME tends to be cheaper to buy and has very good drivers, it also has many different outputs available, including digital/headphone/analogue, whereas the Lynx is solely aes digital (16 in total) but for stereo playback only one digital output is required, I have replaced the stock cables with my own cable, limited to one digital output, this sounds much better than the stock and is a must as far as I am concerned to get the best sound from the soundcard, its relatively easily done provided you can find the multipin connector that lynx uses (not a common type).
Regarding the digital output I think the lynx is just a little better but this may be system dependant,by the way I use the lynx output into a Benchmark dac (non usb type), I have found some problems with the installation of the lynx drivers at various times. although they don't tend to update these as much as as RME.
Both cards can be regarded as excellent, you could also consider a ESI Juli@ which I believe is very good particulary when modified to output I2S into a suitable dac (this is not possible with the Lynx).