I am looking for the ultimate sound card.
Until now I have been using a LynxTWO which offers good performance, but now I am looking for something better, which can compete with home-audio CD players in the $5,000 range or preferrably better.

Here is the way I use it:
1. CD files are ripped to the hard drive of my PC.
2. They are then processed using some upsampling and filtering software which I am developing. Testing the software is one of the reasons I need a very good sound card, as improvements to upsamplig software are sometimes subtle and difficult to hear if you don't have excellent equipment.
3. The result is played through the analog outputs of the sound card, into a home-audio system with amplifiers and speakers costing over $65,000. Obviously, right now the LynxTWO is by far the weakest link in the chain, although it is in no way a bad sound card.

I would prefer a solution which includes both a card in the PC and the actual audio circuitry in an outboard box, since I believe that the PC environment has too much electromagnetic noise for the level of performance that I intend to achieve.

Since I sometimes use the setup to test digital crossovers which I develop, I would rather have a card that has a 6-channel output and not just 2 channels, since a software emulation of the digital crossover would be much cheaper to test than a hardware prototype...

Thanks,
Yoav Gonczarowski
YG Acoustics Ltd.
Yoav Gonczarowski
YG Acoustics

• http://www.yg-acoustics.com

 Re: Need help choosing a sound card - fmak 00:19:28 10/31/04 (1)
 Re: Need help choosing a sound card - Yoav 07:36:08 11/03/04 (0)
 go pro - dwk 18:15:10 10/30/04 (0)

...

Show full thread outline!

 Re: Need help choosing a sound card - fmak 00:19:28 10/31/04 (1)
 Re: Need help choosing a sound card - Yoav 07:36:08 11/03/04 (0)
 go pro - dwk 18:15:10 10/30/04 (0)
 Re: Need help choosing a sound card - audioengr 09:52:57 10/30/04 (6)
 agreed - chiggy 08:31:51 10/31/04 (0)
 Related question... - N.B.C. 13:16:11 10/30/04 (2)
 Re: Related question... - audioengr 15:30:29 10/30/04 (1)
 Thanks... - N.B.C. 16:10:44 10/30/04 (0)
 Re: Need help choosing a sound card - Yoav 10:58:42 10/30/04 (1)
 Re: Need help choosing a sound card - audioengr 15:34:19 10/30/04 (0)

If you want a good sounding PCI card, get the E-MU 1212M. It has potential ground-loop problems from the analog outs though. The digital out is not isolated, but can be isolated with the right mods.

Thanks for the reply.

Please allow me to ask you this though:
1. As far as I remember, S/PDIF cannot carry high-resolution multichannel data. I am talking 6 channels at 192/24. Is there another way to use an outboard DAC, so that I still have high-resolution capabilities?

2. My current sound card (LynxTWO) costs over $1,000. Is the E-MU 1212M actually better even though it costs only a fifth? I find that hard to believe, but I may be wrong.

Thanks for the info,
Yoav.
Yoav Gonczarowski
YG Acoustics

For example, as a temporary solution to get a digital signal out of my laptop, Im using the $40 Creative Sound Blaster mp3 box that has optical outs. Im thinking about getting a cheap $15 optical to SPDIF COAX converter from RatShack so my ART DI/O can be the DAC. Through this chain, will the outboard DAC automatically take over the DA conversion, or is additional computer configuration involved?

Sorry, I know very little about how this all works. Its still gelling..

Thanks,
Neil

Very important I have found. Older generation units that did this sounded really bad. The Transit works well for PC's and the Edirol adapter seems to work well for Imac's. These things can create their own jitter, and they do. This is why I modded mine.

If you have an outboard DAC that will resolve multichannel 24/196 then firewire or Ethernet would do it. Not aware of any solutions available, but I have not looked either.

2. My current sound card (LynxTWO) costs over $1,000. Is the E-MU 1212M actually better even though it costs only a fifth? I find that hard to believe, but I may be wrong.
If the Lynx analog outs are DC-coupled, then it has the potential to beat the 1212M. Folks have compared the 1212M to the Hammerfall 2496 and the 1212M usually wins even though it is half the price I believe. Both are good candidates for modding and I do them both.

I have to go out for the weekend right now, but I appreciate your suggestions. I will be able to ask further questions in the near future, and I appreciate your contributions to this board.

Best,
Neil

To get better, you're going to have to move up to a true studio-grade multichannel recording rig, and you'll have to look at using pretty expensive external converters. You're probably going to be limited to 96kHz, which realistically is all you need anyway IMHO - if you're doing your own filtering you can simply ensure that you brickwall at 40kHz.

It looks like a viable package would be the Lynx AES-16 along with the Apogee Rosetta 800. You'd run AES/EBU to the converter, and it would give you 8 channels of output (add another Apogee if you need 16 channels). By slaving the Lynx to the Apogee, you ensure that the D/A stage uses the local Apogee clock, making jitter a non-issue. As a bonus, you'd also get 8 channels of A/D for applying your filtering to analog multichannel inputs like SACD. The package would be a bit under$3.5k for the 96kHz and a bit under $4.5k for 192kHz capability. I've never heard any of this gear, but I suspect that if this isn't good enough, then you'll be looking at custom hardware.

best,
c

This is a pricey package, but indeed looks very high-end.

What would you recommend as an amplifier?
Here are the choices that I am considering so far. Please note that I will need 2 channels of amplification in total:

1. Crown Studio Reference II
2. Crown K1
3. Hypex A750
4. Hypex A1500

Please also note that I do not need much power, however quality is a must.

Perhaps you also have other suggestions which I may have missed.

Thanks,
Yoav.
Yoav Gonczarowski
YG Acoustics