LynxOne Sound Card

[Bob's Mods]

After many years of using inferior A/D's I finally bought a used LynxOne on ebay. I noticed the difference right away. Much improved sound quality. Easier to create a good mix.

My question is this:

Are there other PCI sound cards that sound even better than the LynxOne?

What about the current crop of new prosumer cards, are they as good as the LynxOne or is the LynxOne still one of the top cards out there (inspite of its advanced age)?

Bob

 

[Ford Van]

Bob, I believe that the Lynx and DAL cards are more or less in a class all their own.

The Lynx 2 is supposed to have some "advancements" in the technology though.

Lynx is a great company! I paid $400 for my Lynx One about 7 years ago and it still works flawlessly.

 

[Bob's Mods]

I was just curious if the new crop of sound cards today are at where this vintage LynxOne is right now. Back in the day I guess nothing could touch the LynxOne or Card D. The prosumer cards were substandard. And so wasn't the crashy software, lousy plugins and junky prosumer pre's for that matter. Combine that with underpowered computers way back in the late 90's and you'd be rippin your hair out trying to get a good mix on a PC platform. That was me. But damn it.....those demos they provided with Cakewalk sounded killer...only my mixes sounded like crap. I went nuts trying to brigde the gap.
I think it was some deception on Cakewalks part. Al those demos back then were done in a pro studio. The implication was...hey...you can make music like this using our software and some plugins. How are you going to sound studio good with junk prosumer convertors, substandard plugs, crashy Cakewalk software and underpowered computers for the task at hand? Back then I tried and tried but my efforts ended up in fustration. They implied you could make great mixes at home while they used tracks and mixes that were done in a pro studio. The difference between my old WT2496 card and the LynxOne were extreme. That WT2496 could play back those Cakewalk demos and they sounded great on that sound card. You just couldn't make mixes like that with that piece of junk. It cost me $300 back then. And the WT2496 was advertised as a pro level card. Lies...lies...lies.

Bob

 

[Robert D]

Except for the Lynx II as mentioned above, I would say no, you have to go to much more expensive outboard converters to get better sound than a Lynx card.

 

[Bob's Mods]

Its hard to believe that dirt cheap sound cards can play back pro recorded music and sound so good but it takes extremely expensive A/D convertors to record great sounding tracks that cheap cards can play it back on and sound great. Something is not right here.

Bob

 

[rightroad1]

I think that's a difficult question ,I don't have any experience with the LynxOne not even my friends.

 

[Ford Van]

Its hard to believe that dirt cheap sound cards can play back pro recorded music and sound so good but it takes extremely expensive A/D convertors to record great sounding tracks that cheap cards can play it back on and sound great. Something is not right here.

Bob

I think you might possibly give cheap sound cards too much credit. Every time I have monitored thru one, I am not terribly impressed with the lack of resolution. Until you have spent a significant amount of time monitoring thru better converters, you won't know what I mean.

 

[Robert D]

Its hard to believe that dirt cheap sound cards can play back pro recorded music and sound so good but it takes extremely expensive A/D convertors to record great sounding tracks that cheap cards can play it back on and sound great. Something is not right here. Bob

I think you might possibly give cheap sound cards too much credit. Every time I have monitored thru one, I am not terribly impressed with the lack of resolution. Until you have spent a significant amount of time monitoring thru better converters, you won't know what I mean.

Lynx II is my reference here, so I can't comment from a Cranesong or other such lofty perspective. I think the effect of track stacking that is so often talked about in preamp discussions applies here. Of course, it's apples to oranges unless you put those cheap A/D's into a pro facility with a pro engineer recording a pro band.