Lynx Hilo - new offering from Pro Audio company. - Page 13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happy Camper 

Para, that is not on their site. I've given a cursory search but wasn't successful on line. I may have to dig into the unit to see if there any indication of those chips.

No, I was going to contact them via email. But damn site was down, so I'm pleading someone just post it. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by paradoxper 

Interested as well.

 

 

 

Ok, Lynx's stupid site is down. So will someone for the love of God post the freakin' DAC chipset used.

Dark chocolate for the line out, milk chocolate for the monitor out, and butterscotch for the headphone amp.

Which is my polite way of saying listen to it and trust your ears to tell you whether it's a good value and suits your needs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by burnspbesq 

 

Which is my polite way of saying listen to it and trust your ears to tell you whether it's a good value and suits your needs.

What does that have anything to do with wanting to know the chipset?

Sorry, I didn't know I had come across as "Oh, 8x chipsets, it's gotta sound good"..

Quote:

Originally Posted by burnspbesq 

Dark chocolate for the line out, milk chocolate for the monitor out, and butterscotch for the headphone amp.

 

Which is my polite way of saying listen to it and trust your ears to tell you whether it's a good value and suits your needs.

Some people would like to know what it is their buying. 

Just saying..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle00Jesse 

sorry, but i'm a little confused with all the extra fancy stuff this dac can do. i watched a youtube video on it and it seemed rather complicated, talking about db levels and all things i dont understand. i'm interested in a dac in this range, and it's awesome that it has a built in amp. that could potentially put it over the edge for me over something like say a nad m51. 

 

is there a straight plug and play option like my gungnir, i.e fixed output via xlr and controlling all volume on my head amp? do i need to jump through hoops to set it up this way? (im not very tech savvy) i'm not interested in the a/d, or anything else really. i just want a superb dac for my headphone setup, and a built in amp that would allow me to enjoy the sa5000 again. should i not look at this dac if i don't know what the hell i'm doing? would be using usb, and coax from a squeezebox touch. thanks

I started using it without reading the manual. I have so far used it fed via USB from a PC running foobar2000. I have used it as a DAC and used all three analog outputs:

• Headphone out
• Line out (XLR)
• Monitor out (TRS, balanced jack)

I read some of the manual earlier this week when I wanted to be sure whether the volume control for the XLR out is analog or digital. I learnt some more at the same time, including getting a better understanding of the signal routing. This part of the manual was easy to understand.

If you want to use USB from Windows, you need, as usual, to install a driver.

By the way, I should probably mention that my work is IT related. On the other side I don't know (too) much about electronic circuits etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by santacore 

 

I sold my D2 after hearing the Hilo. 'nuff said.

Mind elaborating on what put the Hilo over D2 so candidly?

Quote:

Originally Posted by santacore 

I thought it sounded better. Bass went deeper and was tighter. Soundstage was even better. Even more detail. Plus it had a whole A/D section that the Anedio didn't have.

 

The differences were not night and day, but to me, big enough to make it worth the extra money.

Thanks for the input santacore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happy Camper 

I am sorry to report that only one of us got to do a comparison between the DACs and it wasn't me (host). Darryl, Chase and I have decided that when one of us are out on call/vacation, they will give up their DACs for some live in comparisons. I can say that any of the DACs we listened to was top end and of the two (D2 and Hilo) they were almost identical. Chase will have to comment on what he heard on initial listening. I know he mentioned there was static in the Hilo that I can assume was a slight imbalance in my input/output volumes. I didn't set it up for testing, just plugged er in and let him run. But something I wanted to try did work beautifully, I used the Line out, Monitor out and headphone out all at once and the little Lynx didn't bat an eye. You could use the volume of each output or use one input volume control to do all three. As s digital hub I doubt there is much out there that competes with the Hilo's flexibility.

Bottom line, I heard nothing that would make me sell this $1800 DAC for what we had there. But I do like every one of them.

Lynx Hilo
PWDII
Anedio D2
NAD M51

Something I wanted to ask those with vinyl, what are you using to connect the turntable to the Lynx? Is a phono stage needed? How do you connect to the Hilo? I'm not familiar with turntables anymore so don't recall the output connections of the tonearm. One of the members brought their old Sony spinner in and it had RCA outs. Also, a discussion developed on how to get a balanced feed from the tonearm?

FWIW, I really wish the Hilo had a physical remote control so you aren't tethered to the screen. It works fine if you are at the computer or in front of the Hilo but if you want to sit away from the panel, oh well. Just a volume control.......

So i guess that i did the most thorough comparison of the DACs at the meet. While everyone else was busy talking and being sociable i shoved myself over to my side of the room armed with a pair of HD800s, a Headroom GS-X mk2 and a ton of DACs.

Becuase of the nature of the impressions, and as youll see, my apparent lack of detailed impressions, you should probably take them with a grain or two of salt.

The worst dac of the bunch i would say was the NAD M51, it was the only one not up to par with the rest of them. The most obvious thing about it was that the soundstage shrank considerably compared to the Anedio D2. The Anedio D2, Hilo, and the PWD Mk2 are all too close to call in a meet environment. They all sound pretty amazing, and very similar. I would need more time in my home with them to come to any sort of conclusive decision on which of those three i preferred. THe one weird thing though, was as Happy Camper mentioned, there was a hiss on the outputs of the Hilo that wasn't present on any of the rest of the DACs. Again with more time in my own setup at home one might be able to fiddle with all the different settings inside to get rid of it. And if i had to say, i might put the D2 and the PWD just a hairs breadth ahead of the Hilo, but i would want more time to be certain.

The one that pulled ahead though was the Audio-GD Master 7. In the past i have heard the Ref 7.1, and thought it was very good, but it was too long ago to be able to compare them at all, let alone with the same equipment. But i felt like it was a nose ahead of the other three.

You'll notice I am just giving kind of gut reactions to each DAC, thats because there were so many and i only had like 15-20 minutes comparing each set before i had to move on if i wanted to get them all in.

Great to hear the impressions guys, even if everyone didn't get as much time as they'd like. Anybody else care to share their thoughts? 

Quote:

Originally Posted by AiDee 

Thanks for these impressions Soup - they're appreciated, despite the setting not being the best. I've been hanging out for this comparison, and what you found is interesting.

I guess it could make sense the Hilo might be a nudge behind, as it's several (very useful) things in one, meaning less $ on the (main) DAC function. But that's a wafer thin argument really, given other variables like engineering know-how, design goals etc.

FWIW I did a three-way DAC comparison about 18 months back. First, I was surprised I heard differences at all, but they were there. Second, I found sustained listening over many days was necessary to clarify and nail-down with any precision what made each different (and also to filter out impressions that disappeared on subsequent listening).

Thanks again.

Exactly, i think in the future that i will get a chance to live with and compare several of them long term, but it might be a month or two down the road. Obviously, whatever i discover I'll post here. I just didnt want to say anything to specific becuase of the conditions is all :)

Edit: ill tell you what though, the GS-X Mk2 and the HD-800s are some amazing gear to evaluate DACs on, considering how revealing they both are.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoupRKnowva 

 

Exactly, i think in the future that i will get a chance to live with and compare several of them long term, but it might be a month or two down the road. Obviously, whatever i discover I'll post here. I just didnt want to say anything to specific becuase of the conditions is all :)

 

Edit: ill tell you what though, the GS-X Mk2 and the HD-800s are some amazing gear to evaluate DACs on, considering how revealing they both are.

That's the rig I'll be doing some comparisons on as well.