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RE: Been playing with an Emu 0404 USB Versus a Lynx 2B

Posted by aljordan (A) on October 19, 2007 at 07:34:41

In Reply to: RE: Been playing with an Emu 0404 USB Versus a Lynx 2B posted by promet on October 18, 2007 at 23:35:01:

I can't say how the 0404 USB directly compares to an audiophile DAC because I sold my audiophile DAC a few months back. No direct comparison was possible.

I had an Audio Aero Prima SE Mark II DAC in the system for about a year. It was a beautifully built piece of equipment, convenient to use, sounded very smooth and would drive anything, but the tube output stage really colored the sound a bit too much for my liking in the midbass.

I had compared the Lynx card directly and extensively to the Audio Aero DAC, and on good recordings they sounded very similar, although the Audio Aero would exhibit mid-bass bloat that didn't exist on the Lynx, allowing more low bass definition to come though via the Lynx. However, the tubes in the Audio Aero would help smooth out the edge of some poor recordings. I never bothered trying out a Benchmark DAC 1 because the descriptions I've read make me feel it would be very close to the sound of the Lynx, although having a power supply outside of the computer might have some advantages.

I wound up selling the Audio Aero because using a computer as a source allows me to tailor the sound sufficiently to get very good sound out of reasonably priced DACs (by using excellent DSP software products such as the Waves Paragraphic EQ or the Thuneau Allocator). I wouldn't have considered using the computer as a source / DAC until finding a card with sound quality as good as the Lynx. In my system, the 0404 USB fits in very nicely by offering a little more "musicality" via less glare while retaining very good overall detail.

So, the short answer is that I would probably like the 0404 USB compared to an audiophile DAC, but I can't say until trying it out.

Alan

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