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Guidance for a newbie in search of a DAC


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Clay - I use the play side of the AES I/O on the back of the lynx - one "play" and one "record". (I think.) There jacks on the back are not what we think of when we hear AES/EBU and connection in the same sentence. At the back of the Lynx are two two I/O jacks flatish in shape (that have ??? numbers of channels of info coming out of the Lynx - there are alot of pins on the plug at that end of the cable. Anyway Redco has been routinely making custom cables which in my case run the AES I/O on the play side of the Lynx to a single AES/EBU digital input on the Bryston. Works fab. Of course the signal off the Lynx is near jitter-free (as opposed to the noisy USB output on any computer) and therefore very low in jitter with regard to what gets fed to the Bryston, although the Bryston has some great filters further diminishing any jitter present. I think you can refer to the actual jitter measurements on the Bryston at several of the sites that have reviewed and taken measurements (TAS, Stereophile maybe?). I'm not sure myself I'm explaining all this correctly and someone more knowledgeable than I may be able to elaborate.

 

- Paul

 

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Thanks Paul,

I understand your setup. If you implementation is typical for all Lynx users, I had indeed misunderstood. Wouldn't be the first (nor likely the last) time.

 

JR,

can you help out here? Do people normally use your Lynx Breakout cable straight to the DAC? and/or do people use typical audiophile AES/EBU cables between Lynx card and DAC?

 

thanks in advance,

clay

 

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Keep in mind that the oem cable does not come with the aes16 card and is sold on the side for around 50 bucks (not sure I don't ever buy it:) So you can deside to use it or upgrade and save the inital $. The OEM cable has the extra inputs and outputs and other obvious use. It can also be used to feed back one of the outputs into the software mixer to check that everything is working properly. You can't just use any old aes digital cable though as the termination is specific to the card side of the equation.

 

Ragards

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

ps Clay if you get inspired on your ULN-2 to J2 project they will make an analog cable in 1/4 to xlr termination or 1/4 to RCA termination.

 

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"Keep in mind that the oem cable does not come with the aes16 card and is sold on the side for around 50 bucks (not sure I don't ever buy it:) So you can deside to use it or upgrade and save the inital $."

 

well that's a huge plus.

 

"You can't just use any old aes digital cable though as the termination is specific to the card side of the equation."

 

and that's a bummer, it means I can't do double duty with an AES cables I buy for the amp. Presumably the lynx card output is non-standard termination?

 

"ps Clay if you get inspired on your ULN-2 to J2 project they will make an analog cable in 1/4 to xlr termination or 1/4 to RCA termination."

 

Who do you recommend as 'they'? I've got a couple of ideas on AES cables, but am still in research mode. Heck, I've got plenty lying around for recording, but they're not audiophile-approved. ;)

 

 

clay

 

 

 

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Clay, the output of the lynx card is two separate d-sub connectors. One has 8 three wire balanced outs and one has 8 three wire balanced ins for a total of....16 ins and outs.

 

I say "they" because we don't make or terminate the wire. We order the cable and they terminate it per a spread sheet with correct specs that we worked out.

 

Tell me what your trying to do?

 

Regards

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

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HP is, I believe, currently thee largest manufactuer of Windows laptops and boxes for consumers.

 

Most of their laptop products offer S/PDIF via RCA connector, using an inexpensive docking station accessory (around $75-$150 street price, depending on the model. Note: HP part numbers are often available for radically lower prices through third parties! Just Bing or Google the HP part number, and you'll probably be pleasantly surprised with the results.

 

Also, you typically pay $200-$500 to purchase an HP laptop from their "configure it yourself" Web site. The retails channels will often have identically-configured products at substantially lower prices.

 

Given that digital media is a driving marketing force for consumer purchasers, most of the laptops or boxes you see at Costco or Best Buy will have S/PDIF available one way or another. The boxes tend to have it natively, but it will be on a 3.5 mm connector.

 

Toshiba often provides S/PDIF via a mini TOSLINK that is shared with one of the headphone jacks.

 

As mentioned, you have to look carefully :) Check the spec sheets, call the vendor, it will be there somewhere, except on the least expensive models. Almost all of these product, the non-low-end ones, also have FireWire.

 

So, if S/PDIF is adequate for your application (compared to AES) you should be all set. In conclusion, at least in terms of what's on sale the past 3-4 years, most of the new consumer laptops/boxes do have S/PDIF, somewhere, you just have to look carefully.

 

Is miniTOSLINK as good as RCA coax? In the past, it wasn't, but with the new glass-core TOSLINK interconnect, let's check it out.

 

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Nicholas,

 

You may want to listen to the Wireworld glass Toslink cables, either the Supernova 5+ or the new SUpernova 6 (which offers mini-Toslink connection).

 

Yes, most consumer computer models support S/PDIF, but most all of these are Optical - aka Toslink (as opposed to the Coax or AES/EBU variants).

 

As I"ve discovered, saying S/PDIF by itself confuses people, ESPECIALLY when you are referring (primarily) to Toslink/optical. Better to use TOslink/optical when that's what you mean. S/PDIF alone tends to be interpreted as Coax S/PDIF.

 

I refer to the entire group (AES, Coax, Optical/TOslink) as the "S/PDIF variants," as opposed to just saying S/PDIF.

 

 

 

Hope this helps

clay

 

 

 

 

 

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