A/D Converters (Apogee vs Lynx Aurora) Questions

[GoodoleMrA]

I want to buy an external A/D converter. There is a lot of hype about Apogee but I've also heard that the "Lynx Aurora" is more transparent than the Apogees (which supposedly boost certain high frequencies slightly). Is this true?? I'm sure they're both fantastic and it all depends on the listener etc... but does anyone out there have experience with these items that can help me?? Thanks in advance!

[michaelhoddy]

I love the Apogees and have a bunch of personal experience with them. I don't think they boost anything noticeable- they just sound good.

I have not used the Lynx converters (I have used some of their digital products), but I have good experiences with Lynx the company, and I have also heard great things about their converters.

Given that you get both ins and outs on the Aurora 16 at the price point of the input-only AD-16x, and that the Aurora 8 costs almost $1k less than the Rosetta 800 for basically the same feature set, I'd give them a long, hard look.

The Apogees do sound great and have better name recognition (if you have clients that need that sort of thing), but you could invest the significant savings in other things (like acoustical work) that would probably improve your sound more tangibly whatever the sonic difference is between the Lynx and Apogee converters. Something to think about.

[GoodoleMrA]

Thanks, Michaelhoddy! I have no experience with either but I found this video http://youtube.com/watch?v=4dvlPshe9O0
and that's the only review I've ever heard about an apogee that didn't praise it above all its competitors. I mean, is it mostly the brand name of apogee that allows them to charge such a high price compared to the aurora?? I don't care about brand name as much... I'm looking for good sound. Why is it so much more expensive??

[michaelhoddy]

I don't think it's branding- the Apogees do sound very good, and I don't find them overpriced. And actually, when you consider some of the other options (Mytek, Lavry, etc), the Apogees begin to seem reasonably priced! And the Lynx seems something of a steal, which it just might be.

There's a point in converter-land (just like with microphones and probably everything else) where very small amounts of improvement begin to cost a LOT. For instance, the sonic differences between a $2k and a $5k converter are much smaller than those of a $1k versus a $2k converter.

[brianbfw]

i have been an apogee user since i build my studio. i love them, they sound good on all material. I can't give a comparision between them and lynx as i've never heard them. they do have a good reputation.

another point for apogee is their symphony system, which i have and love.
Vbus, allowing you to route audio within and AU program.

the audio routing abilities will rival and Pro Tools HD system.

the above poster is very correct. beyond apogee, coverters become VERY expensive. the next level up is mytek, Larvy, and Prism. Most of those coverters are used only by Mastering houses.

[Rad]

I haven't been able to obtain any even remotely objective comparison between expensive converters for some time now, and not having listened to a big number of them, it's hard to give recommendations. Suffice it to say that the differences are not as big as some salesmen would like to portray them. Just to indicate what I mean, some time ago we played the same material through an RME card and a high-end CD player through a pair of Yamaha NS-80s for comparison. The RME sounded better, mainly in terms of image focus and audibility of the highs, but if I didn't know what was playing I would not say it sounded a $1000 more expensive than the CD player.

The fact is, conversion in our times has become so good that even cheap convertors now can do times better than even studio converters of the old days. I don't want to go into R2R designs and why they have horrible linearity (both integral and differential), but suffice it to say that even the 1-bit convertors of the early 90's had incorrigible problems with distortion until AKM developed the multi-bit design that is used today.

If you're interested in this stuff at all, let me just say that now these systems are built to be "stochastically linear" - i.e. in any given time, the system is non-linear, but this non-linearity changes every time so that the errors average down to zero overall. HOW exactly this probabilistic part is implemented is where expensive convertors differ. Different algorithms exist and there's no naturally right or wrong choice to make, but these choices reflect on the quality of the audio.