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In Reply to: Help to build a Lynx-based pc server posted by steppe on February 2, 2007 at 13:26:40:
Greetings:If your Accuphase has a wordclock output, I would slave a Lynx AES16 to it. This way, your DAC is the "master" and the PCI card used for digital out (SPDIF or AES/EBU) is slaved, using the DAC's wordclock output as the clock source. The Lynx2B comes with a sync cable and is another option - but you're paying about $400 more for the analog I/O stage.
Otherwise, there are lots of ways to get digital out of the PC. Some SPDIF solutions might even work.
By the way - if you DO go with a Lynx 2B, you don't NEED a DAC... the 2B has 6 analog outputs. But with the 2B, you still have a stereo AES3 or SPDIF output available - so you can compare the 2B DACs with your Accuphase. (It's a fun bonus to be able to do both...)
Perhaps list the model number of your Accuphase for specific options.
Follow Ups:
Hello! Basically the idea is to jump off the dedicated player root because of the on-the fly read errors. I now have Accuphase dp65, but was considering to upgrade it to the new dp500 that has a separate dac section with 4 dac chips per channel. I was on the verge of ordering it from my dealer when an idea came to me: to get instead their flagship dc801 dac and to run music from pc into this monster. I have serious doubts that Lynx's dac is any way close to Accuphase, but I don't know if Accuphase has a wordclock output. Probably not. However, to get rid of the player and to go without DAC, using Lynx's analogue output directly to the preamp is even more tempting. Is it (The lynx 2b) so good?
Serge.
Believe it or not. After many iterations, I have concluded that the pc-dac route is only a match for a good dedicated transport-dac. By good I mean a lot of money and trouble such as your Accuphase (which I find to be too cool for my liking). I use dCS and also a Universal Audio 2192 dac/transcoder/clock which is all class a capacitorless in the analogue stages. However, I have concluded that the ringdac technology in the dCS is better and the system seems to reject external jitter such as that from a pc better and portrays pc hd recordings better.I have to stress that it is the details that matter. Changing the single earth point from my dCS 972 upsampler to the dC S954 dac changes and improves the sound!
Hey Serge,Owning the 2b, I think it is really good for the $800 price.
I have only directly compared it to one dac, the Birdland Odeon AG.
The Lynx is in a whole different league compared to the Birdland.
But the birdland is no Accuphase, so who knows.
You may want get a Lynx from a place that will give you return options, and compare for yourself, since there are some posters that have compared it to some pretty high end dacs and prefer it.
Serge:Very much like Dawnrazor's review of the card, I've never even heard of someone who owned a Lynx2B dislike the card. Reviews of the analog outputs go from "really good" to "awesome" depending on who you ask. You seem to get "not quite as good", "as good", or "even better" to describe its performance compared to using an external DAC - again, depending on the DAC and who's doing the comparison. If audiophiles are saying this card can keep up with $2000+ DACs... then it must be a heck-of-a card!
The nice thing about the 2B solution is that you take digital right off of the codec and hop into DACs not 2 inches away with no digital transmission (cable and connectors) or transceiver in there. This might be the single big advantage that seems to outweigh the alleged disadvantages of performing D/A conversion right on a PCI card in the first place.
I'd buy one, but the quality of my current loudspeakers do not warrant a high-buck digital front end. When I get into the Scan Speak stuff, then I might be upgrading the whole PC audio system.
Right now I am using a Creative X-Fi in ASIO (Audio creation mode) with no effects except a DSP/VST digital crossover. For the money, the sound is so good it's silly.
Really the fog is starting to clear. Now I guess I'll start with Lynx2B and use its analogue output directly into the pre, then I'll take my friends Accuphase DP67 with a separate dac section (my dp65 does not have dac input) and use the card'd digital outputs, so I can see which way to go.
The main reason I am fussing about this subject -- I feel that the time demands(?) to upgrade my rb cd player, though mine is working and playing wonderful, and to me it is not really cold in an all-accuphase system. The convenience of pc playback and possibility that I shall get more details from the well-ripped wav files is another lure.
The last group of silly questions: How to make Foobar or any other recommended player to load all the Wavs from the HDD into RAM to play back from memory, not from HDD? Or shall I use USB Flash? What is ASIO and why are they different? Sorry for my ignorance.
Thanks for your patience and for replies.
Serge.
P.S. The Lynx 2b is $ 1060 here in Russia and availible only by preorder from pro-audio vendors, no money-back...
Serge:"How to make Foobar or any other recommended player to load all the Wavs from the HDD into RAM to play back from memory, not from HDD?"
You can increase the RAM buffer size in Foobar to very large values. Even if the buffer is smaller than the size of the song, you're not going to get any errors. This is a whole different ball game from optical media - there is no "transport jitter" with hard drive playback.
"Or shall I use USB Flash?"
You could play back from USB flash but I am not sure this is advantageous in any way. I think it's the same as using a HDD..."What is ASIO and why are they different?
ASIO is.... (read the wiki).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_stream_input_output
ASIO bypasses the windows audio stack, and along with it a very powerful but troublesome component of the stack: the KMIXER. The kmixer resamples anything and everything going in and out of it to 48khz, so that it can have a single sampling rate with which to process the audio streams it handles. Great for flexibility. Crappy for audiophiles who want bit-perfect playback (the whole reason for going with a PC audio server in the FIRST place!!)
ASIO is definately how you want to use your Lynx2B. You can get ASIO output plugins for foobar here:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t29879.html
**Make sure you get the correct output plugins for Foobar. Version 0.9x plugins are NOT backwards compatible. (You need the correct version of plugin for whichever Foobar version you are using.)Winamp ASIO output plugins can be found here...
http://otachan.com/out_asio(dll).html
http://otachan.com/out_asio(exe).html(Pick your poision. Some say one is better than the other... I like dll's because exe's can stay running after the program is stopped (or crashes) and can be a pain in the ass.
"Sorry for my ignorance."
A thirst for knowlege of all things audio is not ignorant. It's essential for happiness and true enlightenment!"Thanks for your patience and for replies."
Not at all - so many were patient with me... and still are! :o)We're all learning here. The only thing that differentiates all of us is when we started. And you can't change when you started.
So why worry?
Thanks again, really. I guess I start now.
Serge.
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