Article: Audiophile Reference Music Server For A Song

[audioengr]

First, I agree with Gordon, avoid the Dell like the plague.<br />

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Second: Chris - have you tried unmapping the device in XP rather than using ASIO?<br />

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I have found this to be superior - it works with Jriver and Foobar and the Lynx card. Not sure about Media Monkey though.<br />

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Third: I find the jitter from the Lynx AES16 card to be unacceptable. The oscillator is nothing special and is actually a VCO of some sort in order to track the word-clock input. I am using the word-clock input driven from a Pace-Car reclocker and then I can get I2S, AES or S/PDIF output with low jitter. It takes about a minute for the Lynx AES16 to sync to the word-clock from the Pace-Car, but then it runs fine indefinitely.<br />

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Steve N.<br />

Empirical Audio

[audioengr]

"Do you also find the jitter from the Lynx AES16e card to be unacceptable?"<br />

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I have not heard one, but I expect the same type of design and the same oscillator as in the AES16.<br />

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"What is the additional cost to the suggested CA Windows XP Reference Music Server and in your opinion what sonic benefits will be gained? Will this do anything to diminish or increase the problems reported of blown tweeters with Windows XP?<br />

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The Pace-Car 2 is $1500 and has dual word-clock output for 44.1 and 96. Sonic benefits due to lower jitter are: Less harshness in vocals, better imaging, blacker backgrounds, better focus and improved dynamics, top to bottom. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be improved clarity. It's like cleaning the haze from the window that you are trying to see through.<br />

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The blown tweeters has to do with the D/A not muting properly usually when using USB or Firewire. The Pace-Car 2 does mute the digital signal when it is not valid, so it is possible that in some cases it might help. I have never had this problem with my gear.<br />

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Steve N.<br />

Empirical Audio

[audioengr]

"The Lynx cards suffer from unacceptable levels of jitter ? Really. I am shocked by this. Isn't it almost an industry standard and very well respected within pro audio circles."<br />

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So? I have modded a few pro-audio pieces. I find nothing exceptional about the designs or the parts used. In fact, they are generally inferior I have found to the best audiophile gear. The pro-audio industry needs to improve because the audiophile playback has left them in the dust. The limiter is now the studios and the recordings IMO.<br />

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"I'm sure the pace-car is a great product, but, it's a hell of a price and since I'm told that in my system jitter is a "non-issue", I'd be scared to fork out that sort of money to eliminate something that may not make a difference."<br />

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I am not asking you to buy one. And you have the right to believe whatever you read. <br />

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I have a large backlog of customers, and incidently quite a few are upgrading from Pace-Car to Pace-Car 2. There are two reviewers that use the Pace-Car for their digital audio: Editor of Positive-Feedback, Dave Clark and Editor of Stereo Times, Larry Borden. According to what has been written on-line, customers apparently hear a BIG difference with the Pace-Car as evidenced by this review:<br />

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue39/ramblings_computer.htm<br />

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The way my wife describes it is "unmistakable".<br />

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Steve N.<br />

Empirical Audio<br />

[audioengr]

"I want to begin in the computer audio world, but it is very difficult, actually I have a Cary 306 SACD Professional player, that has digital inputs (toslink spdif and AES/EBU), so I can use it like a DAC that can read digital inputs of 44, 96 and 192 khz and HDCD. I have many options:<br />

1.- Sell the Cary and purchase one firewire or usb dac like Weiss Minerva (firewire), Wavelength Cosecant (USB), Empirical Audio Spoiler (USB) or even Red Wine Audio Isabellina (USB nos battery dac). With this option I don't know if those dacs will have an audio quality at the level of the Cary, and furthermore I should to renounce to the possibility of to hear SACD."<br />

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First, the Spoiler is no longer available. It has been replaced by the SS Overdrive USB DAC.<br />

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Second, a comparison is easy. It turns-out that Dave Clark, editor of Positive-Feedback has the same Cary player-DAC that you do and he uses the Pace-Car with it and a Macbook (see last post for link). I have heard the Cary DAC and you can do a lot better, but if you like the sound, then keep it and just drive it with a low-jitter source.<br />

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Steve N.<br />

[audioengr]

"Have you tried your Konnekt 8 digitally into your Benchmark DAC1 or Denon DVD-5000. If so what is your opinion on the SQ"<br />

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I had a Konnect in the system last weekend and we compared it to my own USB converters. From what I had read on the DiceII chip and the JET jitter reduction technology, we had high hopes. Well, it's not even close to a good USB implementation I'm sorry to say. It is not asynchronous, so it is similar to typical USB interfaces. It can probably sound better than this particular device, but it comes down to implementation. The Konnect board has a lot of deficiencies IMO, not to mention a really cheap clock. What do you expect for $100?<br />

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Steve N.

[audioengr]

There are a couple of things I like about the Lynx AES16:<br />

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1) it allows multi-channel for those that want to do software crossover<br />

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2) The word-clock sync works and it's progress is very visible in the control panel - you know when it's synced<br />

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Apart from the good customer service that Lynx evidently provides.<br />

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Steve N.<br />

Empirical Audio

[audioengr]

"The Lynx jitter spec is 20 ps."<br />

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The oscillator on the board maybe with a perfect power supply, but not the system. Also, jitter specs must include several measurements, P-P, RMS and others. Even these are insufficient IMO.<br />

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There is no way in the world that they can spec a clock that is powered from an unknown power supply, such as the PCI bus power in some computer.<br />

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Steve N.

[audioengr]

The Lynx is multi-channel and some of my customers are using four or six channels to drive systems with multiple amplifiers driving speakers with no crossovers. They drive the individual drivers, either 2-way or three-way systems. In order to get low jitter, they are using multiple Pace-Car reclockers that are synchronized to each other to deliver two or three stereo channels of digital signal to 2 or 3 DAC's. In order to get multiple-channels, they are using special crossover software on the computer.<br />

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The Pace-Car 2, when used in synchronous mode with the Lynx utilizes the word-clock output from the Pace-Car to drive the word-clock input of the Lynx card. The Lynx card then synchronizes its clock to the word-clock. This is what is shown in the Lynx Control Panel. A short clock cable is connected from Pace-Car 2 to Lynx. Then, the digital data from the Lynx is transmitted via the Lynx AES cable and temporarily stored in the memory of the Pace-Car and then clocked out using a local clock inside the Pace-Car 2 over S/PDIF, AES or I2S cable to the DAC of your choice. Three cables involved. <br />

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The clock inside the Pace-Car is superior to the Lynx clock, as is the power supply, internal cables and board design, so the output jitter from the Pace-Car 2 is much lower than the Lynx. Same data only lower jitter.<br />

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Steve N.

[audioengr]

Firewire devices can be just as good as USB, but no manufacturer has implemented an async interface yet. The DiceII chip with JET jitter-lowering technology is good, but not great IMO. The Off-Ramp 3 beats it hands-down. I have had the latest Firewire design using the DiceII in my system about a week ago and I was not impressed. It had custom drivers that bypassed kmixer, but that didnt seem to help it.<br />

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The primary advantage of Firewire is for studios that must have 24/192 capability and multiple-device firewire connections.<br />

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In 2009, you will see USB interfaces that are both Async and support 24/192. This is one thing I am working on.<br />

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Steve N.<br />

Empirical Audio

[audioengr]

Gordon,<br />

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I believe the Lynx uses some sort of VCXO at 40MHz to sync to the word-clock, but they also have 49.152MHz and 45.1584MHz XO's on the board as well. I doubt if ANY oscillator run off the PCI bus in a desktop computer will have 20psec of jitter, even measured at the terminals of the oscillator. Besides, when we are talking jitter is this P-P or RMS or what? What's the spectrum? There is no good standard for measuring/characterizing this IMO.<br />

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I have spec sheets on the old Oxford parts. I believe the DiceII was developed by TC Applied Technologies out of Canada.<br />

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Steve N.<br />

Empirical Audio