[Binaural Fusion]

I was wondering if people might be kind enough to recommend some not-too expensive soundcards that would feed my Stello da 220mk2. I plan on selling my Apollo and going all computer as source. Thanks.

Is this a possibility?

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...2496-main.html

 

[slwiser]

Hagusb - XLR connection from www.hagtech.com . This is good for 44.1 and 48 kHz at 16 bits and sounds very good.

Or a Freeway or Off-Ramp from http://www.empiricalaudio.com/ for a higher price.

And yes your link does provide a possibility as well as this one:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...Solo-main.html

All of the ones that I mention are out-board sound cards of a sort and will either use your USB or Firewire connection. One advantage of going out-board is getting some isolation between the device and the computer power which is known for being somewhat noisy.

There are many other possibilities as well. I use both the HagUSB-XLR and a M-Audio USB Audiophile device (USB) into my Lavry DA10.

 

[Riboge]

IMO the very best internal soundcard is the Lynx AES16, which as its names implies, outputs aes/ebu (only). It lists for $775 and generally sells new for $675 but I found one very slightly used on ebay for under $500. The best external (without going into i2s) is the Offramp Turbo 2 with aes option which takes usb and outputs aes/ebu, but this is lots more expensive. It is quite rarely available used on Agon for about what the Lynx sells for new.

These are both great and surpass all other sources, certainly the computer based ones, I have heard to date. YMMV, but I doubt it.

 

[OverlordXenu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riboge /img/forum/go_quote.gif IMO the very best internal soundcard is the Lynx AES16, which as its names implies, outputs aes/ebu (only). It lists for $775 and generally sells new for $675 but I found one very slightly used on ebay for under $500. The best external (without going into i2s) is the Offramp Turbo 2 with aes option which takes usb and outputs aes/ebu, but this is lots more expensive. It is quite rarely available used on Agon for about what the Lynx sells for new. These are both great and surpass all other sources, certainly the computer based ones, I have heard to date. YMMV, but I doubt it.

...bits are bits...

And jitter is WAY exaggerated.

 

[Edwood]

I use an RME HDSP 9632 AES/EBU output with My Stello DA220.

I like it better than my RME digi96/8 PAD.

Also, I prefer RME drivers over others.

Haven't had experience with Lynx drivers, though.

-Ed

 

[Maniac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OverlordXenu /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...bits are bits... And jitter is WAY exaggerated.

bits are bits alright, but do take into consideration that the jitter does not affect the bits, but the timing of bits in causing little bits of speed up and slow down in the tune. Think of it as the stability of a tape of vinyl record's motor jitter.

If realtime playback is not a concern, then jitter means nothing unless the are so big that they can cause data error. If realtime playback is a concern, then the "speed" of data delivery is part of the data too. Just as tape or record player's motor speed is part of the playback information too. Both are important part of the audio reproduction, and neither should be ignored.

 

[utilisateur]

X2 on the RME cards, the 96/8 Pad can be had for half the price of the HDSP9632 though at around 300$max

 

[Riboge]

Quote:

Originally Posted by utilisateur /img/forum/go_quote.gif X2 on the RME cards, the 96/8 Pad can be had for half the price of the HDSP9632 though at around 300$max

For Vista users: There will be no Vista driver for 96/8. I don't know about X2. I believe the 9632 has an updated vista driver.

BTW, bits are bits, but the Lynx card and the Offramp unmistakably sound better. Steve Nugent at Empirical Audio says this is due to jitter reduction thru better clocking, etc. The folks at Lynx say the Lynx aes16 is even better than the Lynx L2, which is a bit less expensive, because it has an even better clock. I don't know. I was plenty skeptical about the jitter thing, too, but for whatever reason they do sound better.

 

[Binaural Fusion]

So, resoundly I'm getting responses for ~$500 cards, is that pretty much the norm for AES? I was hoping something cheaper, but I'm selling my Apollo for it so that will balance the cost.

 

[Maniac]

It seems that 1212M also have aes/ebu output, but it doesn't seem to be the standard balanced AES/EBU but rather single ended signal boosted to AES/EBU signal level. If that makes a difference to the end result, I'm not sure.

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Binaural Fusion /img/forum/go_quote.gif So, resoundly I'm getting responses for ~$500 cards, is that pretty much the norm for AES? I was hoping something cheaper, but I'm selling my Apollo for it so that will balance the cost.

For quality cards with good drivers, yes, $500 range is about the norm.

If you aren't going to use Vista, I'd get the RME digi 96/8 PAD. Otherwise, I prefer the RME HDSP 9632. It has a small sound quality difference as a transport, but it's the drivers that sold me.

There's a Canadian eBayer selling a digi96/8 PAD, BTW.

http://cgi.ebay.com/RME-PCI-soundcar...QQcmdZViewItem

-Ed

 

[Tachikoma]

There is the LynxOne, they usually go for $200 or so. The Trends UD-10 has an AES/EBU output on the back, too.

 

[Binaural Fusion]

Thanks for the input folks, I think I'm gonna go with Edwood's suggestion for the RME HDSP 9632 as soon as I sell my Apollo.

 

[Maniac]

Your Apollo, isn't that one of the current Rega player? If it is, you might just want to keep it for a little while. AFAIK, it have really good quality digital output as well.

 

[Binaural Fusion]

Yeah it does, but I'm trying to streamline my whole system to computer-as-source because I am moving out and don't want to bring all my CDs along.