[J@ck]

Why limit yourself to 1212M or 1820M?
If you want good results spend more. I think you will be very happy with a Lynx L22 and a good motherboard/PSU.

 

[Jasper994]

Why is it that there are a bunch of people here, that without having heard it, are claiming the supieriority of the Lynx card? Yes, it's supposed to be a good card but does anyone here actually know how it stacks up to the E-MU 1212m/1820m, RME HDSP or Benchmark DAC-1? Are we judging solely on price? There's a ton on $$$ soundcards out there that don't even stack up to the 1212m in quality, so let's not use price as a quality indicator.

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daroid So you had an Antec PSU that went up in smoke ? No matter what you buy you can get faulty hardware. Easy as that.

I did not say that. My experience with Antec has been that they aren't anywhere near the potential of what a PC PSU can be. I instantly noticed increases in performance across the board when switching to another (better) power supply.

Not to mention the Antecs i've had made very high-frequency noise that got into the audio stream (onboard or not). Also, i've had a certain series of Antec (unfortunately can't remember the name of it right now) destroy motherboards.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daroid PCP&C claim that their PSU (510 series) is better in tese regards than all other PSUs on the market in stability, voltage ripple only 1% as opposed to 5% ... dont know if theres any truth to this

I can attest to that. I monitored my voltages with the TurboCool 510 vs. my Antec (which had the standard 5%) and they are definitely quite a bit better. There's still some fluctuation, but nothing to be at all concerned about.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jasper994 Why is it that there are a bunch of people here, that without having heard it, are claiming the supieriority of the Lynx card? Yes, it's supposed to be a good card but does anyone here actually know how it stacks up to the E-MU 1212m/1820m, RME HDSP or Benchmark DAC-1? Are we judging solely on price? There's a ton on $$$ soundcards out there that don't even stack up to the 1212m in quality, so let's not use price as a quality indicator.

From what i've seen, no one "knows" the Lynx is better, but it's generally accepted that their build quality is higher. What that means as for as aduio quality is concerned... well that's up for debate

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinylbee So the PC will just act as a transport if I am to invest in a Benchmark DAC then ? Is the 1212 recognised by all the software products I have seen mentioned in this forum ? So the real work is ripping the cd onto hard drive but do I use just one compression level or does it have to go thru a few ? I guess I don't quite understand the real technicalities of what is really involved. My concern is how much time with be taken and what steps and programs are needed to get the job done so that I can have a kick-ass pc server cum cd player ? Would it be not better just to use the Benchmark DAC with my existing cd player ?

that's the choice of preference. do you want to spend the time to rip all your cd's to hard drive (how many cd's do you have. 40gb for 100cd's in flac is a rough estimate). it takes time, but once you're setup, if you're like me, you'll **** yourself at how much you love the ease and tweakability (don't forget that) of pc as source

yes, in your price range, av710 (flashed to bit perfect) or emu 0404, and external dac is what you really should consider. or heck, buy the emu 0404, see how you like it. spend the time to rip your cd's with eac in secure mod, get your pc silent, and buy an external dac a little down the line

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IstariAsuka Well, the reason people use their computers as source is because it is far more convenient. All your music is just a couple seconds away, no hunting for CDs, putting them in, whatever. If you don't want that convience, there's no reason why an external DAC hooked up to a cheap CD/DVD player would not work just as well. As for the ripping of CDs, it takes a little bit to setup properly, but there are several very good guides that should have you going within a half hour, and once it's setup you just pop in a CD, click a button, wait 8 or so minutes, and you're done!

and i hope you see more the advantages of an external dac. you can use it with multiple transports, whether you want to use a cd player, soundcard, or whatever

also: i'm all about having seperate components for each stage of the audio tuning process. thus you can customize piece by piece for maximum sound tweeking; rather than take the plunge on one big box for everything

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lcrim Reading a digital signal from a hard drive is inherently quite a bit superior to reading from an optical disk. The following link explains this better than I can. http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/eac/eac.html The question to me is whether to do the digital to analog conversion through the soundcard or export the digital stream off the PC to a separate DAC unit. I don't have an answer to this. This thread also somehow assumes that the PC doesn't cost anything or that the storage for all those ripped files is free. My point was or is that the dedicated CD player @ $1500 should be compared to the entirety of the computer as source. Even at that, the quality that can be achieved were you to spend $1500 on a computer as source would IMO make trhis comparison laughable. You can store weeks worth of music and play it back at astounding levels of quality for an equal investment. Larry

well the big question is: don't you have a pc anyway? do you want/need one? don't you want it quiet anyway? if you have no pc, and don't want one, well then obviously just stick with a cd player source. if you want/use a pc, then i'd say that's your best option. up to you

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah also: i'm all about having seperate components for each stage of the audio tuning process. thus you can customize piece by piece for maximum sound tweeking; rather than take the plunge on one big box for everything

But that also allows more room for degradation of signal and quality. At least in theory

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IstariAsuka But is it better than an external DAC? For $1,500 you can get a nice DAC, a bit-perfect low jitter soundcard to go with it, AND a HDD or two to store your rips. So, he has enough money to go either way. Has anyone actually compared products like the Benchmark and Bel-Canto to the Lynx?

personally, i'd go with the external dac. if for no other reason than tweakability, and getting the freaking analog stage out of the pc (benchmark is very jitter tolerant), getting it out of that non-power conditioned, non rf insulated mess. i think that's a big deal. you can get good digital cables for not overly much. i really think it's important to get good cables, but some seem to think you need to pay mass $$ for good tosslink or spdif. i think this is overrated, especially, as i say, with a jitter tolerant dac like benchmark. still, you want to get decent ones.

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sduibek But that also allows more room for degradation of signal and quality. At least in theory

that is a good and valid point. but remember, there are "interconnects" of a sort in the internals of any component. something to consider. the hook up wire etc. also is a bottleneck. everything has "wires" of some kind. i think with good jacks/connectors and wire you won't bottleneck your system by the ic's. especially if you keep the distance of wire short. you don't want 25foot long digital ic's if you can avoid it.

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sduibek Not really. Unfortunately the Lynx card vs. "Component X" comparisons are very small in number. I plan on buying a Lynx TWO-B eventually, and comparing it to my modded E-MU 1212m, but I don't have a DAC to compare it to. Yeah, but you had to read it from an optical drive (i.e. burning it with EAC) to get it onto the hard drive. So what you said is a moot point, isn't it?

no, it's no a moot point. eac in secure mode will clear up many of the problems of reading a cd in real time. the biggest issue is: error correction is much more feasable at the slowed-down ripping speeds of eac when you encounter a problem. with a cdp it must do 'error correction" in real time as it reads and plays. an important point to consider. eac's page is worth reading. and if your cd is not scratched, eac is very quick.

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah that is a good and valid point. but remember, there are "interconnects" of a sort in the internals of any component. something to consider. the hook up wire etc. also is a bottleneck. everything has "wires" of some kind.

I think this is the reason people who make PC audio rigs really need to consider every component. Motherboard, PSU, all that. It all should be considered an "interconnect". Bad wiring or low quality traces = lowfi sound. At least IME.

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah no, it's no a moot point. eac in secure mode will clear up many of the problems of reading a cd in real time. the biggest issue is: error correction is much more feasable at the slowed-down ripping speeds of eac when you encounter a problem. with a cdp it must do 'error correction" in real time as it reads and plays. an important point to consider. eac's page is worth reading. and if your cd is not scratched, eac is very quick.

That makes sense. Thanks

Unfortunately my drive never copied very fast in EAC. Highest I ever got was 9x. I must be stupid

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan At this budget of 1000-2000, I also recommend external DAC. I wouldn't consider any internal soundcard as truly high performance. Lynx2 or not

seconded heartily

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sduibek That makes sense. Thanks Unfortunately my drive never copied very fast in EAC. Highest I ever got was 9x. I must be stupid

easy possible fix: try cleaning your cd's first with a little running water. if it's still slow, it probably has scratches. and yes, it can be slow, so the time it takes to rip a whole collection will probalby be significant, but if you can take it slow and not let it bug you too much (just let er run), you'll not spend much time personally: putting cd in, hitting eac rip button, taking cd out, putting new one in. i think you see my point. yes, the collection will take time to be totally encoded.

i need to stop posting

too many little bears on this page

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sduibek I think this is the reason people who make PC audio rigs really need to consider every component. Motherboard, PSU, all that. It all should be considered an "interconnect". Bad wiring or low quality traces = lowfi sound. At least IME.

Most people who use computers as a source usually don't have as large budgets . I don't think the mobo, PSU, etc. is all that important in the sense that there are other higher priorities for those on a lower budget. And if you want to be picky, you should also address yours fans and harddrive since their motors may pump noise back into the system. I recommend not usings any

or powering externally.

The easiest thing to do is just get an external soundcard/DAC and avoid the insanity inside the computer.