I have a RME Pad on the way, and have been thinking of ordering one or two more high end audio cards to do a comparison.

Anyone have a recommendations for sound cards in the same league or even a league above the RME Pad. Im looking to keep the total cost under 1k (either for one card or for any amount of cards). My main goal is a card for audiophile listening purposes only. I dont need any fancy recording capabilities. I also dont want to use an external dac so the card(s) must have a good analog output section. I dont have much desk space, and the little I had has been stolen by my amp. I have been considering a DAC2, but would ultimately prefer a good on board converter.

The card will be (as seen in my sig) connected to decent ICs, a stepped MAX, and a pair of senn 600s (soon to be 650s).

I will be keeping the best one and sending back the others so the retailer must have a decent return policy.

Reasonable competitors might include:

Digital Audio Labs CardDeluxe (~$400)

Lnyx L22 (~$700)

Lynx 2B (~$900)

RME HDSP 9632 (~$700)

DAL CardDeluxe. An old recommendation.

EgoSys Waveterminal 192X. It's cheap 192khz capable. Since you're trying you can see how this cheaper card fairs.

Lynx L22. It uses XLR outs for analog though. It should be the winner though as it's the most expensive of the bunch.

Aardvark Direct Pro LX6. It's external breakout box so you may not like it but it uses shielded PCI card.

Ive been looking at the lynx cards. They seem like they offer a large amount of features I would never need. However, If I were to go with a lynx card, is there any reason to choose one over the other? From what I orignally thought, the two was a multi channel card vs the 22 which is strictly 2 channel. Of course sound quality is most important, so If i need to pay for all those extra features to get a card with top components, I guess thats a reason to consider an external dac.

Has anyone ever done a comparison of the CardDeluxe and the RME Pad?

The L22 is fine. No need to get the TWO-any model as it has features you wouldn't even need to use.

Thanks for the info guys, If JDsound offers a return policy I will probably go for the lynx and the CardDeluxe for testing purposes.

What a lucky punk you are, three great soundcards and a MAX

heh, not keeping all three

Also, what do you guys think of the Lynx 22 vs the RME Hammerfall HDSP 9632? Similar in price, i dont think i could afford to get both even for testing purposes.

RME Hammerfall HDSP 9632 would be nice, this is the latest one from RME. .

Quote:



John Atkinson of Sterophile fame kind of has in a round about way.
http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/299/
Personally I'm waiting for someone to get around to reviewing the M-Audio Firewire Audiophile. But whatever...

edit: he doesn't really compare them till page 3 of that article and he never talks about the PAD version though.