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Lynx Hilo DAC/ADC Review and Measurements (part 1: DAC)

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amirm

amirm

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You didn't get a chance to measure the ADC side on the Hilo ? :(
Oh I did. :) I have to process them in Photoshop and then publish. It is just that I can't upgrade the firmware for my RME and then remeasure as requested.
 

Blumlein 88

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What matters , speaker design and how you drive the transducer plus how stuff behaves below the Schroeder frequency in ya room.. how you want to consume the music, wrt that there’s no science here, just do as you please .

What don’t matter ( possibly because like mastering of music you can’t as a punter have meaningful control ) everything else.

Great , we have that sorted .., now please excuse me I’m off to Israel to sort out another mess.
I thought Jared Kushner was taking care of that. So either Thomas is really Jared Kushner, husband of the lovely Ivanka Trump, or he is taking on Jared Kushner's duties. Hmmmmm, don't know whether that is very interesting....................or something is rotten in Denmark?
 

cjf

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I'm just here to mention that I've witnessed the issue shown here with my own Hilo also. I have mine configured to accept an SPDIF Input from my Bricasti M5 streamer and at first it takes about 1min to Lock onto the incoming Bitrate and will eventually do so but as soon as the sample rate changes it must repeat the Lock process for the new Rate. On the other hand, if I only play the same Bitrate back to back to back, it plays fine.

I too can hear the ticking noise when it gets pissed if the SRC is turned off.

I havent had time or the motivation to revist the issue since I discovered it. Maybe someday i'll ask Lynx if it bugs me enough.

FWIW, I do notice a difference in subjective SQ between the Lynx Hilo and Benchmark DAC3. I have the ability to A/B them on the fly in such a way that I'm not aware of which one is selected. I can pick out the Lynx pretty much every time. The Lynx tends to jumble the center image details together instead of creating space between the performers. In other words, it sounds confused. The Benchmark doesn't have this problem, IMO.

The Lynx is still a great unit, I just think the DAC3 sounds better to these ears.
 

c1ferrari

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I honestly can't tell the difference. My setup is very unusual. I have a 4 way digitally active setup for the JBL M2 and 4 subs. The Hilo only has 6 analog outs, so I need another DAC for the horn tweeter on the JBL M2. The M2 horn tweeter gets the DAC3 and the M2 midwoofer gets the Hilo balanced out. The integration is perfect. I like the DAC3's high output and it locks perfectly over AES; there's no drift or other sync issues with it over AES.

Having said all that, if I could find a DAC/ADC that performed as well as the Lynx Hilo with 8 analog outs, at least 24dbu output and could do ASIO multi-client, I'd consider buying it. For now, that doesn't exist.

Horus wouldn't do it?
 

pierre

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Having said all that, if I could find a DAC/ADC that performed as well as the Lynx Hilo with 8 analog outs, at least 24dbu output and could do ASIO multi-client, I'd consider buying it. For now, that doesn't exist.

I don’t run Windows but rme interfaces are ASIO multi clients and usually quit good. The 8 channels from lynx is almost as good as the Hilo. Not good enough?
 

jumper981

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Dear @amirm ,
Thank you for your reviews.
Would you suggest me buying an RME ADI-2 Pro FS(so without Jitter problem and AKM4493),Lynx Hilo or Prism Sound Lyra 2 for ASIO/DAW usage?
I'm using much more DAC instead of ADC.
Many thanks in advance & your work is really appreciated.
 
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amirm

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I have not tested the Prism so can't say anything about it. Between RME and ADI, I like ADI better because they are providing great support both here and their own forum. And the device has tons of features.
 

jumper981

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Many thanks for your quick response @amirm .
What about sound quality, frequency response & harmonic distortion?
 

Ro808

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Between Lynx Hilo and RME ADI, I like ADI better because they are providing great support both here and their own forum. And the device has tons of features.

Sorry Amir, couldn't resist.
 
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