Lavry Blue or Lavry DA10 D to A?

[guitoffee]

I was thinking about upgrading/ adding onto my Fireface 800. I am pretty set on getting the 2 channel A to D Lavry Blue; however, should I also get the D to A Blue or is the DA10 just as good?

Also by having three converters {FF800, Blue, and DA10} locking together, will I have clocking issues?

[gm5k]

DA10 is supposedly just as good. shouldn't be any clocking issues.

[aryschien]

IMHO you should go with the Lavry Blue AD + DA.

(1) If you buy the Blue AD, you're gonna buy one main frame. The more modules you buy, the less one main frame costs per module. Better just fill up the frame with 4 modules.

(2) Some people believe that the DA-10 is just as good as the Blue DA, while some others believe Blue > Black. Yet no one thinks that Black > Blue, so you can't go wrong with the Blue.

As for clocking, two suggestions:

(1) Lavry Blue AD as master. FF800 follows. Blue DA sync to FF800.

(2) Lavry Blue AD as master. Get a decent clock generator box and sync it to the Blue AD, then spread the clock to FF800 and Blue DA. (According to Mr. Lavry you don't need an expensive box to do that. Too late for me. Already got an Apogee Big Ben when I read that article. Can't hear any improvement in my sound....)

p.s.: I recently replaced my Digiface to AES32, because I need more AES/EBU I/Os for more Lavry Blue DAs.

[NathanEldred]

First, the DA10 is equivalent to the Blue, I'm pretty sure it's the same circuit. The Blue D/A is advantageous because it's slightly less expensive than the Black (by about $125), and it will save on desktop space because it's going to all be in one 1ru rack. The Black has it's advantages because it has a built in volume controller (that tracks L/R more accurately than a pot like on some other units) and headphone output.

The only way to utilize the extra features (volume, headphone) that are found on the DA10, with the Blue, is to buy a seperate monitor controller, the cheapest one being something like the Central Station...so you'd have to spend $400 more (or double or triple more for a higher quality unit) in addition to the cost of the Lavry Blue. Otherwise a straight signal from the D/A into your speakers is most likely going to blow your head off, not to mention no control of volume. You want to keep your speakers or power amps gain all the way at max and control the volume with the DA or monitor controller. However, the DA10 does not have speaker switching, so you'll only be able to monitor one pair of speakers.

If you need to monitor more than one set of speakers, you'll be required to get a monitor controller. Regardless of whether you decide on the Blue D/A or the Black DA10 they will both use their own internal crystal to reclock the signal, so there is no way for you to use the Blue Msync as the master at any time. This is a good thing IME. So you'll just be sending clock to your AES32 card and the Fireface. I would do it like this: clock the Fireface through PLL (the BNC to BNC) and then let the card derive it's clock from the AES input of the Lavry A/D simultaneously. Some other people may have different ways, but this is simple and I know it works and it will only require one single cable (the WC cable). The AES connection should have come with your AES32 card on the breakout snake. Good luck!!!

[guitoffee]

Are the Lavry Blue converters only AES? Does the A to D have spdif? I couldn't see a rear view of the blue converters. I see that the DA10 does. Again I am interested in putting this as my front end to my Fireface 800. If the blue only has AES what's an easy way to connect via the FF800?

I don't have a free PCI card slot on my MAC desktop and like to utilize my FF800 with a laptop as well.... If there is no SPDIF on the blue, any ideas?

Buy a Mytek?

[guitoffee]

bump

[NathanEldred]

Originally Posted by guitoffee

Are the Lavry Blue converters only AES? Does the A to D have spdif? I couldn't see a rear view of the blue converters. I see that the DA10 does. Again I am interested in putting this as my front end to my Fireface 800. If the blue only has AES what's an easy way to connect via the FF800?

I don't have a free PCI card slot on my MAC desktop and like to utilize my FF800 with a laptop as well.... If there is no SPDIF on the blue, any ideas?

AES is very easy to turn into SPDIF. You need one of each of three things

1st) AES 110ohm XLR M to XLR F cable (length of your choice obviously)

2nd) Canare AES XLR to SPDIF BNC 110 ohm to 75 ohm transformer adapter (fits in the palm of your hand, looks like a barrel pad)

3rd) 6 inch BNC SPDIF to RCA SPDIF digital cable (note the Canare adapter is BNC, so you have to get it to RCA SPDIF with this little cable).

It costs well under $100 to do this 'one way'. If you end up with all Lavry Blue you'll need two sets of the above. If you do Blue A/D and Black D/A, you'll only need one set of the above, and one regular SPDIF RCA to SPDIF RCA cable.

[soundtrack2life]

I am feeding my FF800 with Lavry Blue AD (8 chan) & DA (2 chan) and a Lavry DA 10 feeds my monitors.
If you ever decide to run more than one module of the Lavry Blues (AD or DA) into the FF800 you will need a digital converter as such http://www.rme-audio.com/english/adi/adi4dd.htm
I am using the discontinued unit that I found used on Ebay.
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/adi/adi8dd.htm
The Lavry AD is my studios master clock that I feed into a Lucid Gen-X 96 split out to everything else in my studio. Of coarse if you don't have that many other digital units you could set up the WC as described in NathanEldred's post. At this level converters become a personal choice FWIW I really love the Lavry converters. They will be nice step up for you from the FF800.
Joe

[squeegybug]

Originally Posted by guitoffee

If there is no SPDIF on the blue, any ideas?

I have done it with just XLR to RCA adapters. Dan approves and recommends that option, for runs under 6 ft. Just use a normal 75 ohm S/PDIF coax cable with RCA connectors.

Or, if you want longer runs, as Nathan mentioned use two of these Canare XLR-BNC transformers to go between 110 ohm and 75 ohm:




www.markertek.com
BCJ-XJ-TR, $19.65
BCJ-XP-TR, $19.48



Then plug two of these BNC to RCA adapters into the Canare transformers:



Markertek # B-PF, $1.99 each


Add your two RCA S/PDIF 75 ohm cables and done.

Much simpler and cheaper than the Neutrik equivalent.

Steve