Full gear list:
- PCIE lynx aes card
- 88d (top left)
- Topping A90 (top right)
- wattbox swiches for led lighting amps, and powered monitors
- allways on Furman for PC, DAC, networking
- dbx compressor/gate for Zoom mic
- switch
- Aurora8
- metal mesh office desk organizer (the Aurora is hot)
- VTV purify amp
- DIY Murphy Corner Line Array mains
- Behringer 2031a powered monitor surrounds
Right now I am testing out an Okto Dac8 instead of the Lynx, it would provide me an upgrade path beyond Dirac (into Audiolens/Accurate) and simply my chain considerably (at the cost of losing standalone non-pc playback). So, a great time to send this in for review.
The Dac8 (as a 4x AES DAC for the 88d) testing not going smooth. I have been running into issues where PC playback is fine but the Dirac test impulse generator wont play. Once I got that solved (by switching the Dac8 to USB mode and using the PC to change its sample rate and bit depth) I encountered very strong distortion after the Dirac file was loaded. After much trouble shooting I found the solution was unplugging all AES except 1-2 from the Dac8, playing some signal, then plugging in the remaining channels one at a time.
The Lynx Aurora8, when first purchased, had quite a few problems as well. Mainly stemming around DB-25 standards. There are 2x different standards for the pinout, Yamaha vs Tascam, and the unit itself is not labeled for what pinout it requires. I purchased multiple DB25 connectors over a series of weeks in search of the right one, when I found a working one, I stopped my search and celebrated. That is why Amir got stuck with a very tidy 2' output DB25, and a stupidly long 16' input DB25. Also my ebay-used Aurora8 has no screw in terminals on one DB25 (I forget which), but I had to reconfigure my rack to add a physical support below the unit so that the cable had strain relief.