Reccommended laptop interfaces (to connect high quality outboard AD converters)?

[bove]

What would be an appropriate way(s) to connect a nice high quality 6-8 Channel A/D converter (Lavry Blue for example) to a Laptop Computer?

You can't use a Lynx Audio card, since you don't have any PCI slots on a laptop. And all the firewire interfaces I have found include their own A/D and preamps, which is wasteful, since you wouldn't want to pay for this stuff (since you had separate, and higher quality, pres and AD.) You'd simply want a reliable way of transferring your digital data into the computer.

Any advice for a high quality, but efficient solution to this?

[YUGA]

M-Audio Profire Lightbridge would be a good choice if you connect your converters via adat. I don't know any other firewire interfaces with no analog inputs.

[tenor39]

You can use the Lynx card with a Magma expansion chassis. They use either the PCMCIA cardbus or Express 54 slots on a laptop for interface. You can also install HD's in them. I use the 2-slot (really 3) with my HP and Lynx AES-16 card.

[XLR]

That's great!

If the AES16 is put into this Magma box, can You only use it with the PCMCIA Card and laptop computer, or also connect with a desktop unit?

[bove]

From looking at the Magma expansion box website, it looks like these boxes cost about $1000. Is this correct? Looks very nice, but it seems like a lot of cash for what the box does.

The M-Audio Profire Lightbridge looks like it could do the job. It can handle a lot of inputs. I'm also thinking it will have no effect on the audio quality... It just passes the bits along, yes?

[ghellquist]

I want to recommend RME.

I run a RME Digiface. This has the added benefit of the built in DSP mixer allowing me to listen on the signals when recording. The Digiface has three ADAT ins ( and outs) and consists of a PCMCIA card and an external box.
RME Intelligent Audio Solutions - Digiface
RME Intelligent Audio Solutions - Hammerfall DSP Interface: CardBus / PCI

If you want to connect a Lavry Blue you will additionally need to convert the four AES signals into ADAT. One way of doing this is the RME ADI-4 DD.
RME Intelligent Audio Solutions - ADI-4 DD

In fact, this is the exact combination I run: 8 ch Lavry BLue --> ADI-4 --> Digiface --> PCMCIA card in laptop. It has been absolutely rock solid with zero problems during the two years I have been running it.

Lately though, I have looked at the Fireface 800 to be a bit more future proof - the PCMCIA is coming out of fashion in laptops. It has 2xADAT-s allowing 96kHz sampling at 8 channels, the same mixer and in addition a few extra channels that may come in useful. A friend uses this unit with a laptop and has had very solid performance. The preamps are not quite up to it, but for an extra spot mic they definitely work.

Gunnar

[tenor39]

Personally, I don't care for ADAT/Lightpipe digital connections. I think that in most situations AES sounds better and has less jitter. The nice thing about the Magma is that you can run external HD's in it, as well as a digital interface card(s). You can even run effects cards, like the TC PowerCore. It uses either the PCMCIA or Express 54 (faster) slots. I believe that Magma makes a PCI card that will allow interfacing with your desktop. My setup has the Lynx AES-16 in addition to (2) 250GB SATA drives that use an eSATA port installed on the back of the Magma. I've run 16 channels of 96/24 through it with no problems, including monitoring through the digital returns.

[ghellquist]

Originally Posted by tenor39

Personally, I don't care for ADAT/Lightpipe digital connections. I think that in most situations AES sounds better and has less jitter.

Well, you are possibly correct. In this usage though, jitter makes absolutely no difference. Once digitized by the Lavry running as master clock, the rest is bit transfer. If jitter is introduced in the transfer it will not change the sound in any way whatsoever. Bit errors of course, but in my experience short ADAT cables rarely add much of that.

Gunnar

[John Brook]

tenor39, I have been looking for a way to get an 8 channel Lynx Aurora into my PC laptop, which does have the PCMCIA port. Yesterday, I came across the Magma. If I load the Lynx AES card into that, do you think I should be able to run all 8 channels at 192khz? Should I get a rack box with more than one slot? Thanks for any advice. As you can see, I don't know much about this.

[fifthcircle]

You can get a Magma Chassis on ebay for a couple hundred bucks.

You're not going to find a better interface than either a lynx or rme digital card.

--Ben

[bove]

Ah- eBay! Perfect!

The Magmas seem to be selling like hotcakes on eBay. Great Idea.

[Agli]

Originally Posted by John Brook

tenor39, I have been looking for a way to get an 8 channel Lynx Aurora into my PC laptop, which does have the PCMCIA port. Yesterday, I came across the Magma. If I load the Lynx AES card into that, do you think I should be able to run all 8 channels at 192khz? Should I get a rack box with more than one slot? Thanks for any advice. As you can see, I don't know much about this.

Is this not out yet? 16 channels of 192khz.

http://www.lynxstudio.com/lynxltfw.html

[bove]

Originally Posted by tenor39

You can use the Lynx card with a Magma expansion chassis. They use either the PCMCIA cardbus or Express 54 slots on a laptop for interface. You can also install HD's in them. I use the 2-slot (really 3) with my HP and Lynx AES-16 card.

You say you install HDs in these Magmas... Do you mean you power them in there, how to you connect them to the laptop?

[tenor39]

Yes, the HD's are powered in the chassis (it can handle 2) and there are 3 different ways to interface them to the computer:

- IDE/PCI controller card (I believe they support the SIIG cards)
- Firewire/IDE interface port
- eSATA port

The last 2 mount in the PCI slots on the back, though they don't use the bus. Magma doesn't supply any of those, so you have to get creative. Their tech support is outstanding, however.