Aurora 16 or mytek 8X192

[Froombosch]

I am in the market for some extra converters and am thinking bout these two.
I could use the 16 ins/outs of the Aurora, but will it be good enough so it will stay in the studio?

I rather invest in something good then in something that will leave the studio sooner then planned...

Kind regards,



Harrie

... still my genelecs 1037 B's for sale.....

[Brad McGowan]

Well I'm a little biased...but my response would be get the Mytek. I'm going to guess there will probably be an obvious sonic difference between the two, with the Mytek being the more pristine sounding unit. It's full of awesome features. They both are actually, but I think the Mytek will serve you well for many many years.

Oh and I happen to have one for sale.

Brad

[Froombosch]

LOL! Why are you selling?


Harrie

[Brad McGowan]

Well the short story is I bought two and I need money. Do a search for "Mytek" and my user name and you can read the full disclosure.

Don't worry...I'm not trying to pawn a crappy piece of gear off on anybody...quite the contrary.

thanks,
Brad

[AdamJay]

I think the Lynx has a staying quality, at least as much a staying quality as a converter can have... every 5 years they all seem to be obsolete.

I'm happy with mine.

[TanTan]

love my Aurora 16

[Doublehelix]

Yep...love the Aurora! Lynx has top-notch support as well. First-class all the way.

[crypticglobe]

Well.. I don't see any posts here from anyone that has actually used both... so I will chip in.

I have used both... but I honestly think that MOST of the high end converter makers should be trembling in their boots a little bit. What Lynx had done is offer a converter that is as good or better (depending on your personal taste) than converters that cost MUCH more!

The Aurora held it's own with Mytek, Lavry, and Apogee in a test I did. In a blind test, I preferred the Aurora (on several different sources) about 70% of the time! After those results... and meditation on the price... it was a no-brainer. Every where I go with my Aurora's, people are amazed at how great they sound.

Don't be afraid to save some cash in this case.... you can make AMAZING sounding records with Lynx Auroras.

[Brad McGowan]

Or buy yourself a used MOTU unit and have it modded by Black Lion Audio if you really want bang for the buck conversion...even more so than than the Lynx. Let's face it--high end conversion is really just icing on the cake. You don't need them to do good work.

Brad

[atticus]

I vote 8x192

[kats]

Let's face it--high end conversion is really just icing on the cake. You don't need them to do good work.

Conversion is the engine of a race car. It's the choke point. Good mic placement, and good mics & pre's for that matter DIE if the conversion isn't good. The 10% or 20% gain in high end mics and pres is a waste without it.

[AdamJay]

Originally Posted by kats

Conversion is the engine of a race car. It's the choke point. Good mic placement, and good mics & pre's for that matter DIE if the conversion isn't good. The 10% or 20% gain in high end mics and pres is a waste without it.

are you saying if you dont have high end converters, you may as well just use SM57's and it will sound the same?

[Brad McGowan]

I totally disagree. Your nice mics and pres will still sound awesome through average sounding converters. People make records with Digi converters don't they?

Brad

[T.RayBullard]

Mytek.

Ive heard the Auroras, and they are fantastic, but not on the level of mytek or the ilk.

Teddy

[iziphonics]

Conversion is the engine of a race car. It's the choke point. Good mic placement, and good mics & pre's for that matter DIE if the conversion isn't good. The 10% or 20% gain in high end mics and pres is a waste without it.

I agree 100%

are you saying if you dont have high end converters, you may as well just use SM57's and it will sound the same?

It's not the point in my opinion. Every piece of your chain metters. Good converter is a translator to digi world, if it's poor you'll loose the quality of what you have. It's particularly clear when you have complex mixes. Instruments tracked with good A/D with sit better in mixes, reverb tails will be clearer, eq more distinct, you'll get more details

People make records with Digi converters don't they?

Sure they do. But as I understand we are speaking about what's better not what's possible. I've recorded a lot of stuff with MOTU 828 converters and they worked. Now I'm using Myteks and the difference is more than clear for me.

[kats]

are you saying if you dont have high end converters, you may as well just use SM57's and it will sound the same?

Doesn't work that way. Think of it as a photo copier. You create a beautifull picture full of detail and depth and reproduce prints. The better the copier, the closer to the original the repros will be. If the machine isn't up to task, it won't make one iota of difference what brand of paint you used or whether it was high gloss or flat.

In the world of mics and pre's, we are making decisions in subtleties - subtleties that will be lost with sub par conversion. If your talking about upgrading a harsh low end mic to a Soundelux - yeah the difference will be obvious regardless of conversion. But once your in the game and deciding between a Vintech or a Neve - you better have damn good conversion if you want to sqeeze the extra 2k of tone you just bought by picking the Neve.


Fortunately, conversion is much better at a decent price today. But it's integral to your studio in the same way your tape machine is/was - not even close to icing on the cake.

[TanTan]

the part in the studio that looses its value the most are the converters , a 10K high end converter will loose most of its value in a few years , and after 5-7 years you will get only 800$ for it on ebay , you could use the 9K+ you've lost on converters for buying gear that will less longer , will be more usefull and catch more clients attention, most of them will never ask for more than the protools HD converters , so buying converters and it doesn't matter what kind of is actualy like long term renting them , i own Aurora16 and they sound GREAT ,i don't think there is any better value for money these days and i don't think the Myteks offers you something that justifies the price gap , same with apogee and Lavry blue , i can't see any reason for converters to be that expansive , what is there ? a conversion chip and a simple analog buffer ? (i'm not talkin about DCS,Lavry Gold,Prism 2ch) ok we are paying money for the design , the brand etc , but it's a contemperary piece of gear in your studio and it will soon be an old unusefull digital box that once has been the latest technology... i think all the high end converters brands should follow the Lynx route and reduce the prices of these boxes

[David Spearritt]

Yep, amen to that TanTan.

We bought the Lynx Aurora 8, as we didn't want to suffer the enormous and rapid depreciation of yet another digital device. The support is excellent, one of the main reasons for purchase, apart from meeting and exceeding the basic requirement of beautiful sound.

We are happy to spend big bucks on analog gear, but not digital.

[Nu-tra]

I have two modded Motu hd192's and they sound like night and day! I can't believe how good these things sound. I was going to buy the aurora but I ended up keeping my 192 and buying a 2nd instead. I love cue mix.

V

Originally Posted by Brad McGowan

Or buy yourself a used MOTU unit and have it modded by Black Lion Audio if you really want bang for the buck conversion...even more so than than the Lynx. Let's face it--high end conversion is really just icing on the cake. You don't need them to do good work.

Brad

[Matthew Murray]

I don't know that really high end converters lose their value all that quickly though. For example, the Weiss ADC2 has been around for quite a while -- the ADC1 before it was a very similar design from what I understand. The Weiss technology hasn't changed *all that* significantly since it's conception several years ago, and it's still a prized piece of gear, and it still sounds killer by comparison. Of course, this is merely from what I understand, so call me out if I'm wrong.

Same with the Lavry Gold stuff. Those designs go a ways back. You make the investment, I think you're probably investing in conversion that will stand the test of time a bit better, and at least be *on par* with the lower priced gear of the future. There's got to be a point where the returns you get from developing new conversion slow down, and the quality of improvements you can make become less and less. Conversion is pretty damn good right now.

[DDD]

Nat Kunkel from his EQ article...

NK: If I had millions of dollars and I was doing this from scratch, I’d go buy 32 channels of this new GML 2032, a one-rack-space, mic-pre, EQ, and DI, and an insert point so the mic pre is separate from the equalizer, with a built-in power supply, and then I’d buy two of these Aurora 16s, which are one-rack-space 16-channel A/D, D/As. So I’d have 32 channels of AES/EUB in-and-out with mic pres, in one huge big tall rack. That would be my remote recording input rig.

Kinda cool...3d WDIK

[jdunn]

Originally Posted by TanTan

the part in the studio that looses its value the most are the converters , a 10K high end converter will loose most of its value in a few years , and after 5-7 years you will get only 800$ for it on ebay ....................

i own Aurora16 and they sound GREAT ,i don't think there is any better value for money these days and i don't think the Myteks offers you something that justifies the price gap , same with apogee and Lavry blue

Actually Mytek converters hold their value pretty well. I've consistently gotten between $1,300 to $1,800 for used 8x96 units that originally hit the market over 5 years ago.

Also I should point out that the Mytek 8x192 is DSD capable with an optional daugtercard, so it's more "future proof" than the Lynx Aurora IMO.

DSD has not taken over our industry, and doesn't look like it ever will. PCM will likely still be the format most of us use in 5 years. Besides PCM and DSD, I've not heard of a third digital audio format being developed.

I don't need my converters to do anything different than they did 5-6 years ago. They take the analog signal and make it digital, period. In the past 5 years, converters have only improved slightly overall. It's just that there are more affordable units on the market that sound good now.

Anyway, I really like the accurate high end clarity of the Myteks, but I'm sure that for the money, the Aurora would be a good choice as well.

Also the Mytek 8x192 has some sort of summing feature, and an audiophile quality headphone amp. And it's extremely well built.

[David Spearritt]

Originally Posted by jdunn

In the past 5 years, converters have only improved slightly overall. It's just that there are more affordable units on the market that sound good now.

I dunno, now things are better than 5 years ago. Clock locking is better, no glitches or re-powering up in some special order to get the whole shabang to synch. Better power supplies, this always marches on. Better and cheaper chips that allow the Aurora to sound as good as the really pricey converters from 5 years ago. More sensible ergonomics and routing in the design, so that minimal re-patching is required between playback and record. More remote or software controls of these units, the developments go on.

These are all desirable developments, all contributing to the monetory and physical depreciation of older boxes. While the specific absolute conversion may not have changed significantly, others things have and will continue to do so, and at cheaper prices.

[jdunn]

Originally Posted by David Spearritt

I dunno, now things are better than 5 years ago. Clock locking is better, no glitches or re-powering up in some special order to get the whole shabang to synch. Better power supplies, this always marches on. Better and cheaper chips that allow the Aurora to sound as good as the really pricey converters from 5 years ago. More sensible ergonomics and routing in the design, so that minimal re-patching is required between playback and record. More remote or software controls of these units, the developments go on.

I was speaking purely of sound quality.

I do agree with you on the following: The digital converter and clocking chips have been through a few revisions. Things are better, but I wouldn't call it a night and day difference. The main change is that there are lots more converters on the market, some at reasonable prices.

Of course that's just my opinion. I'll try and do a comparison between the Mytek 8x192 and the Lynx Aurora in the future. I've been planning on stepping up to the new Myteks for a while now.

The clocking on my old Mytek ADC/DAC 8x96 units is very solid, they never glitch, and you don't need to power cycle them at all to change sample rates, etc...

[mixerguy]

Originally Posted by jdunn

. (snip)..... I've been planning on stepping up to the new Myteks for a while now.

The clocking on my old Mytek ADC/DAC 8x96 units is very solid, they never glitch, and you don't need to power cycle them at all to change sample rates, etc...

Maybe you'll want to eventually sell me your old DAC 8x96 for a super low price?

[Sam Lord]

Originally Posted by jdunn

Actually Mytek converters hold their value pretty well. I've consistently gotten between $1,300 to $1,800 for used 8x96 units that originally hit the market over 5 years ago... In the past 5 years, converters have only improved slightly overall. It's just that there are more affordable units on the market that sound good now....Also the Mytek 8x192 has some sort of summing feature, and an audiophile quality headphone amp. And it's extremely well built.

Bingo to all that. Atsa why I bought Brad's 8x192...Best, Sam

[Brad McGowan]

Originally Posted by kats

Fortunately, conversion is much better at a decent price today. But it's integral to your studio in the same way your tape machine is/was - not even close to icing on the cake.

My point was that if your cake is really a mud pie (made of dirt)...then the conversion isn't going to have the same impact on your recordings if you upgrade your monitors, acoustics, microphones, and preamps first. And I would never recommend anyone buy crappy conversion. But once you get to the mid-level stuff (~1K) your doing alright and the improvement you gain by spending $3k-$4k is more subtle.

Brad

[Brad McGowan]

Originally Posted by jdunn

Also the Mytek 8x192 has some sort of summing feature, and an audiophile quality headphone amp. And it's extremely well built.

Don't forget the mute switch, the mono switch, and the XLR outs to feed to your monitors. It's an all in one digital control center!

Brad

[Mitch Manger]

Sorry to sound like such a novice at this, but I am.

I'm trying to decide between this Mytek and the Lynx. I guess that I get hung up on the headphone amp issue, and monitor outs. The Lynx obviously does not have the ease of the stereo xlr outs for monitoring either. With the Lynx, how would I ensure that my headphone signal and monitor outs are coming from the same signal? Obviously I don't want to have 2 stereo masters, one for monitors and one for headphones.

I have never dealt with headphone amps independently before, so please let me know how I'd solve this if I bought the Lynx, which would give me the 16 channels i want, instead of 8.

Thanks,
Mitch

[matt thomas]

I've owned both the MYtek 896's and the Lynx 2, both of these units are slightly earlier versions of what you're asking about, so here is my 2c:

The Lynx converters are great and will be good enough for what pretty much anyone could realistically need, I don't believe they will reveal themselves to be a weak point in your chain. the Aurora 16 obviously also has 16 channels.

I prefer my Myteks, but for me it would come down to channels and $$, I don't think you will regret either.

narco