USB vs PCIe Sound Card for audio analysis

[L-Train]

Very informative thread. It's great to see measurements of all of these different sound cards.

It would be very enlightening if folks with other soundcards could make similar measurements of theirs in loop-back, 96kHz 24 bits, so that we get some comparable data.

I've attached measurements of my Lynx E44, using balanced connections and +20 dBu FS trim.

 

[thimios]

It depends on how good the stuff you are testing is. There are some inexpensive sound cards that may work but for stable drivers etc. you should be looking at ESI Juli@ or EMU or similar home studio level cards as a starting point. Used is as good as new for the most part. You will need external hardware to interface to the amp and protect the card.

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?

 

[1audio]

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.

 

[L-Train]

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.

 

[Renfield1217]

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

 

[vacuphile]

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.

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.

 

[1audio]

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:

 

[1audio]

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.

Which software are you using? I don't recognize it.

 

[vacuphile]

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?

 

[1audio]

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.

 

[1audio]

Is the steps function available in the free version? I can't find it.

 

[SY]

Here's my PCI card.

 

[vacuphile]

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]

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.

 

[1audio]

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.

 

[vacuphile]

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.

Sorry for the misunderstanding, English isn't my first language. With 'upgrade' I meant to say: did you modify your card? This since it seems to perform quite a bit better than the manufacturer's specs.

 

[SY]

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.

 

[00940]

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).

 

[AKN]

Lynx measurements looks really nice.

My 2i2 loop back -10dB (balanced)

 

[vacuphile]

Stuart, just kidding.