setting up for digital play back

[Costas]

I just purchased a Alpha Dac and have a few questions on hardware&software.

 

1. Mac vs PC and the lynx ae16 card vs the Mykerinos cards I assume these cards are only for Pc and can not be implemented with mac.

 

 

I prefer The MAC since i use mac, I would like to hear what you folks have to say about all of this.

 

I need the best possible solution for play back, I am developing a product and need the absolute best.

 

Thank You

 

Costas

 

[bordin]

From my experience,the Mac platform produces the best sounds mainly due to better audio kernel and drivers. The Weiss INT202 or the Metric Halo ULN-2 is better than the Lynx AES16 card.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

"I need the best possible solution for play back, I am developing a product and need the absolute best."

 

Hi Costas - Is this a commercial product you are developing?

 

[Costas]

no its for home

 

[Costas]

thank you, so you use this with a mac base

 

I see you have the berkely dac are you using this with weiss and mac set up

 

 

[Costas]

I see you have many dacs, how are you using your alpha dac,

 

what are you feeding it for an input etc, what are you using for computer etc.

 

 

I like to hear more from you, i can see your into dacs

 

 

thank you

Costas

 

[vortecjr]

it does not seem your question has been answered. I can tell you the Lynx AES16 will work on MAC and PC and Linux:) I have never built a server with a Mykerinos card so no comment on that.

 

Jesus R

www.sonore.us

 

[Costas]

tell me more please.

 

 

 

[bordin]

Hi Costas,

 

> what are you feeding it for an input etc, what are you using for computer etc.

 

I built a music server using a barecone PC from Shuttle. It comes with a Firewire port and the Lynx AES16e can fit in it.

 

My configurations:

 

1. Windows XP or OSX -- Lynx AES16e --> Alpha / ULN-2 / OMZ (/w DIY AES-SPDIF Converter)

2. Windows XP or OSX -- On-board Firewire --> INT202 --> Alpha / ULN-2 / OMZ

3. OSX Only -- Firewire --> ULN-2 --> Alpha or OMZ

 

As I mentioned, the best sounding is from using either ULN-2 or INT202 as the digital interface on OSX. However, the Lynx AES16e (on OSX) can make your Alpha sound fantastic.

 

You may be interested in the following thread:

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Clocks-and-Alpha-DAC

 

 

[hifitubes]

From my experience,the Mac platform produces the best sounds mainly due to better audio kernel and drivers. The Weiss INT202 or the Metric Halo ULN-2 is better than the Lynx AES16 card.

 

What systems? What OS? Tweaks done? Power supplies? What specs? What players? What cards? what DACs? What experience? Do you have a link to your experiments; did you post details here?

 

Why not just post what you did later, in the 1st post, that good sound can happen on either? I just think it is beyond ANYONE here to know for a fact that Windows vs. Mac is the prime variable for fidelity. Please don't reduce the discussion to that even if you do indeed use both.

 

 

 

 

 

[PeterSt]

I just think it is beyond ANYONE here to know for a fact that Windows vs. Mac is the prime variable for fidelity.

 

Well said.

 

From my experience,the Mac platform produces the best sounds mainly due to better audio kernel and drivers

 

Not well said. :-)

 

Peter

 

[bordin]

Hey Guys,

 

The benefits of CA is to share opinions and direct experiences, perhaps facts. ;-)

 

My logic is so simply, but opinioned.

 

A dual-bootable Shuttle XPC (Windows XP/Vista and OSX) with a Lynx AES16e card feeds to the OMZ DAC. Listening to the same tracks.

 

To my knowledge, I haven't encountered a Windows-based system that makes the Lynx AES16e sound as good as on an OSX-based system. It would be interesting to find such a system.

 

Nonetheless, this would require a lot of tweaks which would not be straight forward for ordinary music lovers to follow. ;-)

 

The music from OSX environments (in my setup) sounds better, to my ears. This is off the topic.

 

 

[PeterSt]

Ah, that sounds much better :-))

 

To my knowledge, I haven't encountered a Windows-based system that makes the Lynx AES16e sound as good as on an OSX-based system. It would be interesting to find such a system.

 

Stuff it in a W7 system (but can be XP too), set your BADA to filter #2, use Quad Arc Prediction filtering on redbook from a certain player which supports that (hehe), and let us know.

Don't buy it, that is not what I'm after.

 

Vista/W7 tweaks can be found in a batch file (here : http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=548.0) but they are not really necessary at first.

 

Peter

 

[Audio_ELF]

For clarity... [Edit: I just noticed I've lost half of my post that I intended to make so will edit/add it now)

 

The Lynx AES16 card is PCI. It will work with PCs running Windows using Lynx supplied drivers. There are also drivers available for Linux though only using OSS (AFAIK) rather than ALSA. The Lynx AES16 card will also work in older Apple PowerMac computers running G5 processors (and older) running Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or OS X 10.5 (Leopard). The Lynx AES16 card will not wok with later PowerMac G5 or current MacPros as these have only PCIe slots.

 

The Lynx AES16e PCIe cards will work in Apple PowerMac G5 (with PCIe slots) and current MacPros. It will also work in any PC running Windows with an available PCIe slot.

 

The Mykerinos card is primarily designed for use with the Pyramix software, though an ASIO drive does exist for it to be used with other Windows software.

 

Eloise

 

[hifitubes]

That is why there is a "Master" mode for the Model Two that makes the internal conversion clock a master clock output to lock external signal sources to, such as DAW's or transports. That way the signal source locks to the conversion clock for lowest conversion jitter, not the other way around.

 

Again has me thinking that if you use an external clock, it's possible to fall victim to the same proposed limitations (impedance mismatch, cables, etc.) setup as a DAC acting as Master. You are limited to how good that master clock in the DAC is. Of course, the Model Two is no slouch.....

 

Also, if there is an improvement from separating the word clock data and th bit-serial transmission of the digital audio data data, you need a word clock input to do so of course.

 

[Costas]

I finally got around to setting up the INT 202 with the alpha, have you experienced any problems setting up the software for INT 202

 

I have, and the control panel will not open, I get an error message and it closes

instantly

 

I sent weiss an email they send me some instructions which I tried and its still not working any help would be handy

 

 

thanks

costas

 

[anthonyh]

Many laptop manufacturers are adding HDMI out connectors to their devices specifically for this purpose, so that customers can display their content on big screen televisions.

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