Article: Audiophile Reference Music Servers

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi ivo1986 - Welcome to Computer Audiophile. You'll be glad you didn't give up on computer based audio. The best manufacturers and most respected people in the high-end industry are using computer based solutions.<br />

<br />

Make sure to let us know how it goes!

[ivo1986]

Btw is there also an device like the Empirical Audio's Pace-Car Reclocker but then cheaper?<br />

<br />

And another question is there a reason why you didn't chose for the Lynx22?<br />

<br />

Also where can I buy a cable with xlr out for 4 meter?

[The Computer Audiophile]

There are some Pace Car type product coming out very soon, but I'm not too familiar with similar products that are cheaper right now.<br />

<br />

the Lynx22 only supports up to 96 kHz on its digital output and I needed up to 192 digital I/O. The Lynx22 will output more than 96kHz via analog, but that wouldn't help me.<br />

<br />

For now the only cable available to the public is the Lynx cable on its website :-( <br />

<br />

My cable was specially made for me by one of my contacts.

[Goldfinch]

Hi, I have just bought a Lynx AES16 and I am looking for a d-sub to AES (XLR) cable as you use to connect it to my Lavry DA-10 DAC. Please, could you tell me where can I get one of these cables?<br />

Thanks and congratulations for this useful Web.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi goldfinch - Unfortunately the cable I use hasn't been released to the public at this time. There are many people such as yourself who are looking for this cable. I'll keep the pressure on for this to be released ASAP.

[tube06]

Hello Chris,<br />

<br />

You write: 'Connecting the Lynx card to the DAC is done by either one of two cables. Lynx manufacturers an HD26 pin to AES breakout cable that has 8 channels and external clock wires. My preference is a specially made HD26 pin to a single AES (XLR) termination cable. Since the DAC only has one AES input this is very nice. Removing the extra seven "antennae" can't be a bad thing.'<br />

<br />

I've seen the Lynx XLR/HD26 cable and I was thinking that maybe Kimber could work something out. At a price!<br />

So, I've just sent them an email.<br />

ASA I get an answer, I'll let you know.<br />

GM<br />

<br />

'Hello,<br />

I'm the proud owner of a complete Select(ion) of Kimber Kables and Powerkords.<br />

However, as I'd like to go down the computer to DAC route, I'm wondering whether you could supply your 2120 digital interconnect with an HD26 connector so that I could plug it into a Lynx Soundcard fitted to my (sooon to be bought) Mac Pro.<br />

Thanks,<br />

GM'<br />

[The Computer Audiophile]

Fabulous GM! I hadn't thought of that. I too use Kimber Select. I'll talk to my contact over there as well.

[tube06]

Hello Chris,<br />

I haven't yet had a reply from Kimber but you could suggest to Kimber to take up the idea and include a XLR/HD26 2120 in their product list. They might even send you one for review...<br />

In the meantime, where do you get your own DIY XLR/HD26 cable? The same guy might agree to modify a 2120.<br />

Thanks,<br />

GM

[StephanLJ]

Hi,<br />

<br />

all you need is a 26 pin high density connector and a voltmeter to figure out the connections. I bought an Apogee Wyde eye cable (WE-XX-2,0 = this is two meters of cable plus XLR connectors), clipped the female connector and soldered the wires to the 26 pin connector. And believe me, Apogee does pro stuff. Highly recommended.<br />

<br />

Greetings Stephan<br />

<br />

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Stephan - To be honest the "all you need..." comment is very accurate, but 100% further than I want to go. I'd rather buy one off the shelf :-)<br />

<br />

<br />

I'll thank you in advance for the readers who can take this info and run with it!

[tube06]

Hello there,<br />

I've just had a reply from Kimber:<br />

<br />

'Hi Gerard,<br />

Unfortunately, we are not able to provide any custom terminations beyond RCA or XLR connectors for our interconnects.<br />

<br />

Best regards,<br />

<br />

<br />

Nate Graham'

[StephanLJ]

Chris,<br />

<br />

for at least four posts regarding your cable I was put on hold, so I took the initiative and came up with my solution.... sorry. But honestly it did not take longer than 15 minutes and I am not the electronic or soldering geek you might think. And it shure is not in the high price league but in the high performance league.<br />

<br />

Regards <br />

<br />

Stephan

[StephanLJ]

Reconsider my response to Chris. The quality of Apogee has to be heard to be believed. I use this cable on and off since four years and I always come back and was never dissapointed.<br />

<br />

Good luck <br />

<br />

Stephan

[jeroen020]

Dear Chris,<br />

<br />

In your article you wrote:<br />

iTunes is not perfect all around because of issues like lack of auto sample rate recognition ....<br />

<br />

Maybe a stupid question, but isn't the LYNX AES16e-SRC an option for this problem ?<br />

<br />

Furthermore in another article you mentioned upcoming features/ software or hardware which would be really good, but you couldn't mention so far. Can you give an indication though what is concerns ?<br />

<br />

Kind regards,<br />

<br />

Jeroen

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Jeroen - Welcome to Computer Audiophile. Good questions. The SRC option won't help us at all because it does sample rate conversion. This is exactly what we don't want. We want the audio to be sent out in the exact sample rate of the music. Plus, the problem begins with iTunes. If iTunes resamples a 24/176.4 track to 16/44.1 there is no way to recover and you wouldn't want to resample an already resampled track. <br />

<br />

One of the items I've been referring to is the Amarra application and its associated hardware. This is a really nice product. The sound is much better than iTunes even though both are sending out bit perfect audio streams. Plus Amarra has auto-sample rate recognition. No more closing and reopening iTunes just to manually change sample rates. Here is a little article about Amarra.<br />

<br />

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/sonic_studio_unveils_amarra<br />

[minzyman]

Hey Chris,<br />

<br />

Is there any advantage to using XP professional or 64 bit versus XP Home Edition? This would be with a Lynx AES16 card configuration on a TNN-300 Intel machine.<br />

<br />

Thanks Chris.<br />

/Lee

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Lee - I like the direction your taking here. Don't get the 64 bit version of XP, it is a joke and there are no drivers for anything on XP-64. Vista 64 bit is a different story, but it's not XP.

[jeroen020]

Hi Stephan,<br />

<br />

Just wondering if you allready bought the Berkely, and if so, how does it compare to the Wadia ?<br />

<br />

Kind regards,<br />

<br />

Jeroen

[StephanLJ]

Hi Jeroen<br />

<br />

Yes I bought the Berkeley Dac and it is no comparison. I never was better in the digital domain than with the Berkeley, it will be hard to beat this one. Everything else I heard so far sounded broken in comparison. Thanks to Chris, he made me aware of this Dac. If you want to do you a great favor get this Dac and live happily ever after.<br />

<br />

From a very happy Dac owner<br />

<br />

Stephan

[StephanLJ]

Hi Chris<br />

<br />

Yesterday I came across the Thecus NS 5200 and I found the term iSCSI. After reading about this feature I found that iSCSI transfers are faster than a Gigabit network and that it transfers larger amounts of data. So I´m asking if this could be a poor man´s SSD. If the complete file gets transfered to memory then we would have no moving parts. Please correct me if i´m wrong. Otherwise I will give it a try.<br />

<br />

Greetings<br />

Stephan

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Stephan - I can't say I've heard anyone think of a NAS unit as a poor man's SSD. I wouldn't characterize a NAS unit this way as it over-simplifies everything quite a bit. iSCSI v. standard gigabit Ethernet storage is much more of an issue for enterprise data centers. In a music server environment I've found iSCSI to be pretty close to the same speed as standard network storage. iSCSI also places some severe limits on access to the drive(s). Accessing the iSCSI NAS from multiple computers can be very sketchy. Where as traditional IP gigabit Ethernet storage is simple to acccess with many computers at the same time.

[StephanLJ]

Hi Chris<br />

Thank you for the clarification. The story with multiple users over iSCSI is a tricky issue as I realized today. I will stick with your recommendation. Thank you again for this great site and all the answers I can find here.<br />

<br />

Greetings Stephan

[minzyman]

Hey Chris,<br />

<br />

Amazing stuff that's coming out these days for our fun hobby. I hear good things...<br />

<br />

I wanted to ask you if you could please list all the tweaks you do to the Win XP OS to get it totally quiet. I hear you turn everything off that doesn't absolutely need to be on. So what is that? You have the Intel P5Q-EM motherboard in your Zalman, same as me, with XP running I believe, while drawing your music over ethernet via a Thecus NAS. So what devices can you turn off without losing OS functionality? Obviously you don't need the Intel on board soundcard device enabled. That's a start. What else can we turn off to ensure that this machine is dead quiet and without inner conflict?<br />

<br />

Thanks!<br />

<br />

/Lee

[cmason16]

Chris,<br />

<br />

Any thoughts on a system that would support both 2ch and 5.1 / 7.1 materiel? I am seeing 5.1 and 7.1 stuff at 24/96 and would think it will just be a matter of time before we see higher sample rates available. Based on discussions with Lynx today it does not seem that the AES16e would be pratical method, doable, but not pratical.<br />

<br />

Thanks,<br />

<br />

Chuck

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Chuck - I haven't seen any simple solutions yet. As Lynx said, it's doable but not as simple as two channel.