Very informative thread. It's great to see measurements of all of these different sound cards.
I've attached measurements of my Lynx E44, using balanced connections and +20 dBu FS trim.
I've attached measurements of my Lynx E44, using balanced connections and +20 dBu FS trim.
Attachments
I have an ESI Juli@ but i can't find the best way for testing.
I don't know the way exactly.Is it necessary to connect out(AMPLIFIER) GND to inp.(SOUND CARD)connector GND?
What does the E44 use for ADC and DAC? The performance is exceptional and this must be the only serious soundcard introduced in the last 5 years or so. Lynx has a lot of history making very high quality soundcards. the E22/E44 do not work in XP or older OS's which can be a limitation. Still at $700 for an E22 its one of the best options I have seen.
If I recall correctly the DAC is the Cirrus Logic CS4398 and the ADC is the CS5381.
I've also just measured the E-MU 1616M and the results for that are attached.
Attachments
Hi all,
I just picked up one of these late last year and am really pleased with it.
Sound Cards | Essence STX II | ASUS USA
I just picked up one of these late last year and am really pleased with it.
Sound Cards | Essence STX II | ASUS USA
The king is dead, long live the king. I need a Lynx. Or perhaps I'll try to mount better opamps in the EMU first, the price is pretty steep, but it delivers about the same performance as an SRS audio analyzer.
Last edited:
The DAC and ADC are as much a limitation as the opamps. The only EMU in this class would be the 1212m/1616m/1812m family. The 1212m responds well to an opamp upgrade. The others are really challenging to work on. I have two smoking hulks that did not survive.
Below is the modified 1212M adc from a really low distortion source:
Below is the modified 1212M adc from a really low distortion source:
Attachments
Demian, it is STEPS, part of the Arta suite, which you can download and use for free, but it is eighty bucks, and worth every penny. It would be nice to see measure of your sound card with the same software to compare, but it looks really impressive. Maybe I should go that route. What opamp upgrade did you do, lm4562?
Basically its a simple (except the footprints don't match perfectly) swap to LME49720 (LM4562). I'll look for the steps function and see what happens.
Demian, it is a separate program which comes with the download iirc.
Sy, that really looks very good because the curve is much flatter than what I get. Suppose you upgraded it, would be nice to know a bit more.
Sy, that really looks very good because the curve is much flatter than what I get. Suppose you upgraded it, would be nice to know a bit more.
Upgrade how? Buying a Lynx? That would be nice but it's out of my budget. However, the distortion here is so far below anything that actually matters that I'm not too envious of folks who have them.
I found steps. I forgot about the other programs packaged with ARTA. I deal with a lot of these packages and I cannot keep them straight.
In any case here is the loopback at 192 KHz +4 analog settings. Its dominated by the 3rd harmonic. I'll need to figure out whether its the DAC or the ADC. Usually its the DAC. The ADC's are typically better than the DACs.
Everything else is exceptionally good. No known transducer is anywhere near as good as these measurements.
In any case here is the loopback at 192 KHz +4 analog settings. Its dominated by the 3rd harmonic. I'll need to figure out whether its the DAC or the ADC. Usually its the DAC. The ADC's are typically better than the DACs.
Everything else is exceptionally good. No known transducer is anywhere near as good as these measurements.
Attachments
Not a language problem, it's ambiguity, for which English is famous. Anyway, no, stone stock. I should point out, though, that the measurement was taken in balanced mode.
I wonder... has anyone tried to interface the analog section of an ESI Juli@ to an USB chipset ? I know the opposite has been done (using the digital part of it as a pci to I2S transport).
- Status
- Not open for further replies.