lynx L22 vs. Black lion Sparrow

[roosterino]

I plan on upgrading my A/D from my current emu 1616m setup. From the posts here, it would seem both units would offer signicant upgrades. Here are a few other considerations:

The Lynx offers D/A conversion and I can pick one up used for around $450. But on the downside - it takes up a PCI slot (which are becoming antiquated and will be hard to come by when upgrading the puter in years to come).

If I go with the Lynx, will it cause problems having both the lynx and emu installed in the computer?

Just wondering if there are any factors I may have overlooked.

[space2012]

tc system 6000 adda cards vs. ua 2192 vs. ?

hear the gear shoot outs
aurora vs. sparrow

[space2012]

Originally Posted by roosterino

I plan on upgrading my A/D from my current emu 1616m setup. From the posts here, it would seem both units would offer signicant upgrades. Here are a few other considerations:

The Lynx offers D/A conversion and I can pick one up used for around $450. But on the downside - it takes up a PCI slot (which are becoming antiquated and will be hard to come by when upgrading the puter in years to come).

If I go with the Lynx, will it cause problems having both the lynx and emu installed in the computer?

Just wondering if there are any factors I may have overlooked.

i had 1820m,

A) had a verry strange DA sound,
#1. becouse the wordclock. E-DSP clock sounds verry odd.
=
get Alesis Ai-2 (+-50ppm)
or better Lucid genx192 (+-25ppm), Rosendalh nanoclocks (+-5ppm)
or temperature controlled oscillators <1ppm like Drawmer M-Clock, Mutec iclock, dCS 995/998, antelope ocx,
or atomic 0.03ppb, like antelope 10M or teac esoteric Rubidium atomic clock.
with the best cables you can get...
99.997% OFC minium for 44/48khz
more info about cables in psaudio.com

#2. becouse the cirrus logic DA chips, thats personal taste,
but i dont like much that cirrus logic chip,
sound verry strange, the chip filters are too soft knee.

#3. had verry muddy mid-range, becouse the bad quality analog signal path, the op-amp and cappacitors specially or the relay.

i had a good PSU in my PC, so they sounded the best they could.
but it could have been a bit better with a furman ar-15 series ][.

B) the 1820m pci card holded back the system performance.
and that was strange, but no other pci soundcard did that.

C) didnt worked ok at less than 8ms. with 80% cpu load.
ASIO Driver performance is verry important if you use native CPU plugins.

D) thers a Lynx L22 vs. m-audio audiophile192, 1 files, AD only.
found years ago, but rembered.. http://www.vocalimpactmedia.com/SoundStorage.html

E) PCI has better ASIO drivers than Firewire, or USB. if talking about same brand, developer.
F) i had Lynx AES16, Emu1820m & RME hdsp9632 in the same Pc, asus p5w dh deluxe
also had 1820m and M-Audio Audiophile 192.

i had one big problem...!
when i Flash Upgraded my RME hdsp9632 firmware,
EMU pci card firmware was "erased" damaged.
EMU went CRAZY! Distorted Sound, erratic light blinking, etc...

thank fully, since Emu drivers v2 have included an automatic Flash Firmware update in the v2 drivers, installed v2 drivers in other PC and everything was OK again.

TO FLASH UPDATE FIRMWARE ANY PCI card, remove all other PCI cards first!.
or use another PC with no PCI cards installed.
allways at your own risk.

G) i liked the 1820m AD, much better than M-Audio Audiphile 192, or RME hdsp9632/Fireface800.
but i need CPU efficient Asio drivers & crystal clean DA more.

the only thing i forget to test, were EMU MIDI driver performance...
*the best midi interface search... can you help?

[Hugo Panadero]

Wow, these are the exact same two A/D options I am considering. I currently have an M-Audio Audiophile card, which accepts s/pdif--which would work with the Sparrow. But the Lynx card would give me balanced D/A back out (as opposed to RCA out on the Audiophile). I also like the various i/o connection cables included.

So, for me, it mainly comes down to which would be better for A/D conversion. I 'm leaning toward the Lynx, even though it is a PCI card, and will become outdated eventually. Still, most opinions hold that conversion is best done externally, as the Sparrow does. You see where this is going--I've been back and forth on this for too long!

[roosterino]

So, for me, it mainly comes down to which would be better for A/D conversion. I 'm leaning toward the Lynx, even though it is a PCI card, and will become outdated eventually. Still, most opinions hold that conversion is best done externally, as the Sparrow does. You see where this is going--I've been back and forth on this for too long![/quote]

It's hard to come to a decision. I keep wondering if I'll be able to hear a difference between the either the lynx, the sparrow or my Emu. Does it really make a difference? Will anyone hear it? Will anyone care? Some claim there's no difference, some say it's night and day and for a questionable upgrade it's really expensive.

I'm also wondering if having both the emu and lynx card in there at the same time will cause problems - wondering if anyone has a setup using to pci sound cards (obviously you can't use them at the same time but otherwise are there arny problems).

[rhythminmind]

+ 1 for the L22. I use my L22's as stand alone converters. Gives me 4 more channels of really nice analog I/O I feed them from my TC interfaces over SPDIF. Work great.
You might find this interesting as well.
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-mu...-new-post.html

[roosterino]

Thanks rhythminmind. I've seen that post. I don't know how the Rightmark analysis translates into the real world aesthetic. In the tests you ran (signaltonoize.com) the Emu 1616m seems to be on par with the Aurora (RightMark Audio Analyzer test: EMU 1616m) and both are beat by the Digidesign 192.

That doesn't seem to be the sentiment expressed on this forum though.

[willsing]

Originally Posted by roosterino

So, for me, it mainly comes down to which would be better for A/D conversion. I 'm leaning toward the Lynx, even though it is a PCI card, and will become outdated eventually. Still, most opinions hold that conversion is best done externally, as the Sparrow does. You see where this is going--I've been back and forth on this for too long!

I have owned both the L22 and the Sparrow, both at the same time. I did compare them both. I found the L22 to be nice and smooth. Great conversion. I found the Sparrow to be just a little better with a slight bit more sparkle and depth, if you know what I mean. For me a little better makes a big difference. Though, I kept the L22 and ended up with a Mytek AD 96 which is my favorite combo. I'd have to say though, that the Mytek and the Sparrow are pretty much in the same league, with the Mytek a little better suited to my taste.

As far as PCI cards going obsolete, I am not too worried about that. I already have a fast quad core with Samplitude v10.2 working well with my Lynx. If I can't make good music on that puter, then something is wrong. I'll just keep it for as long as I use the Lynx. So much time I have wasted on the compulsive upgrading bug as an avoidance to making music. Now, I am happy to say that I have got a decent set up and am focusing now on the music making!!

[roosterino]

Originally Posted by willsing

I have owned both the L22 and the Sparrow, both at the same time. I did compare them both. I found the L22 to be nice and smooth. Great conversion. I found the Sparrow to be just a little better with a slight bit more sparkle and depth, if you know what I mean. For me a little better makes a big difference. Though, I kept the L22 and ended up with a Mytek AD 96 which is my favorite combo. I'd have to say though, that the Mytek and the Sparrow are pretty much in the same league, with the Mytek a little better suited to my taste.

As far as PCI cards going obsolete, I am not too worried about that. I already have a fast quad core with Samplitude v10.2 working well with my Lynx. If I can't make good music on that puter, then something is wrong. I'll just keep it for as long as I use the Lynx. So much time I have wasted on the compulsive upgrading bug as an avoidance to making music. Now, I am happy to say that I have got a decent set up and am focusing now on the music making!!

Thanks - I've enjoyed your posts especially since your experience is with the 1820m. So in your experience, the L22 was a large step ahead of the 1820m?

The problem with the Sparrow is it only takes care of my AD and will $200 more than the L22. I'm not too thrilled with the DA of my Emu either. It's OK, but I feel I can do better especially when it comes tracks sitting in the stereo field.

I wonder if I'd notice a step up hooking the Emu up with a Behringer SRC2496. It's so cheap I may just do it to experiment.