Question of Latency: Apogee Symphony vs Lynx AES-16/Aurora

[Mile-High]

Hey, another thread with the words Apogee and Lynx in the title!

There's plenty of info out there (and in here, with the gearslutz!) about A/Bs and other comparisons. But what about latency?

Today it seems like it's only Apogee that is using low native latency in their sales pitch. I'm looking to upgrade soon and to me, being able to get a low latency is almost as important as the converter quality. I'm Generation RWP. (records with plugs)

After reading a lot here, the Lynx AES-16 (with an Aurora or SSL converter) seems like a nice, less colored alternative to the Apogee Symphony system. But what's the latency gonna be like?

Anybody using the AES-16, what latency do you get with Logic Pro? I guess the PCIe version is still not out yet....? ..so maybe this' still not time to compare this.

/Olov

[fredrik@mi7]

Originally Posted by Mile-High

There's plenty of info out there (and in here, with the gearslutz!) about A/Bs and other comparisons. But what about latency?

Today it seems like it's only Apogee that is using low native latency in their sales pitch. I'm looking to upgrade soon and to me, being able to get a low latency is almost as important as the converter quality. I'm Generation RWP. (records with plugs).

Hej Olav.
First of all I hae to say that I haven’t A/B’ed the two system you are talking about, but I would like to shead some light on the solution Apogee is offering.

There are two reasons why Apogee is able to ship a system with the lowest latency on the market.
1. The use the new PCIe standard that has got a ton of bandwidth and is super-fast.
2. Apogee is working very close with Apple and for that reason they are able to write amazing drivers that fit Mac OS and the Apple hardware very well.

Originally Posted by Mile-High

After reading a lot here, the Lynx AES-16 (with an Aurora or SSL converter) seems like a nice, less coloured alternative to the Apogee Symphony system. But what's the latency going to be like?

Less coloured? Do you feel that the sound coming out of the Apogee converters available today is coloured? If we were talking about older products like AD8000 the old AD/DA16 I would understand it, but the new range of products are very transparent. On the other hand I can’t think of anything nicer that recording 8 tracks of drums thru an AD8000 with SoftLimit engaged, it just sound so full and punchy.

All converters have a slight “character” to them since it’s close to impossible to build a converter that is 100% accurate you always lose comething on that way. Some might like Apogee’s converters and and some might like another one.

Lucas van der Mee (the designer at Apogee) is building every new product using his ears to find the combination of components that is giving him the best possible sound, that might not always be the same answer as he would have gotten if he measured the hell out of them in a lab, but after all, music shall be consumed with ears not oscilloscopes.

We have sold quite a few system in Sweden by now and we have even had one of Sweden’s biggest artists throwing out his PT|HD in favour for a Symphony system with a R200 after trying pretty much every available solution.

Please feel free to contact us at MI7 if you need more information or maybe you should have a chat with the guys at DLX (Stefan F, Martin or Rolf), they have got a demo system in the store and should be able to show it to you.

[Mile-High]

Originally Posted by fredrik@mi7

2. Apogee is working very close with Apple and for that reason they are able to write amazing drivers that fit Mac OS and the Apple hardware very well.

That's a pretty good point. Thanks!