Lynx AES 16 with Benchmark DAC 1 Pre

I wanted to ask if anyone has ANY direct experience with the Lynx AES 16 and Benchmark DAC 1 Pre. I'm in the process of upgrading my music server to one based upon the Lynx AES 16 and a Benchmark DAC 1 pre. I started out with a DAC 1, but liked the digital outs' sound so much that, in the process, I had a bit of a change of direction regarding the Benchmark. And begin to think that the DAC 1 Pre would be a nice little 'swiss army knife' device - that could at least double as backup preamp, as well as having a nice DAC. So, I swapped out the DAC1 for the DAC 1 Pre. It took awhile to get it all here - the dealer had to order an XLR to spdif adapter cable from Lynx, since the DAC1 Pre, unlike the DAC 1, uses RCA inputs for ALL the digital ins (with the exception of one Toslink input),

However, I've had an awful time so far getting the lynx/benchmark setup to work. I've been working on it all weekend. I won't go into it in detail - I've tried a dozen different things - and there is massive misinformation on how to install the drivers for the card - but finally settled on essentially following the instructions on the Reference Recordings website for how to set up and configure the Lynx on an XP based system and then installing and configuring Media Monkey. http://www.referencerecordings.com/HRxSETUPS.asp. I've followed the instructions to the letter for both (with one exception on the Lynx card that they did not consider, but found somewhere else) , but I still have output errors in Media Monkey. Meanwhile, physical connection wise to the Benchmark, it's not happy either. I've got the XLR Output 1, through the provided adapter cable, coming from the Lynx and going into the DAC, and I'm getting error messages there as well (in the form of blinking lights - 16 fast ones - in the status display of the Benchmark, which, according to the owner's manual, could be an indicator of data dropouts due to bad cable or incompatible audio data type or presence of non audio data.

Anyway, if you have any direct experience, please let me know. It's turned out to definitely NOT being a simple install and go thing, and I'm still re-reading the Lynx and Benchmark manuals to see if there's anything I've missed. But, I'm also not real confident in the dealer's knowledge. Any guidance would be helpful. I'm running XP on my AMD based music server computer (it's currently serving music to a Squeezebox).

Thanks!

Daina

Hi Daina - Thanks for providing the details, they help understand what's going on. Do you happen to have another DAC to test things with? It would be nice to narrow down the issue to a DAC, cable, software etc...

One thing that come to mind is the chance of an impedance mismatch. 75 v. 110 ohms. I highly recommend calling Lynx. There are some really smart people there who have likely seen this issue a time or two.

Hey Chris,

Thanks so much for the reply. I believe that the impedance of the adapter cable in question is 75 Ohms - or actually whatever it's supposed to be because it came from Lynx. I will verify this tomorrow, but it is a Lynx CBL-XFDR18 S/PDIF Adapter. I DO have another non oversampling DAC, which, I suppose I could try, and will do so tonight or tomorrow. Meanwhile, Windows says that the driver is working properly, and included with the Lynx is a test generator, which generates a tone of some sort through the L/R 1 output, which visually does appear to be happening, from within the Lynx Mixer software. But it's not getting out anywhere beyond that. The latest message I get from Media Monkey, when I try to play a standard WAV file is this:

"Unsupported Format (44,100 HZ, 16 Bits, 2 channels). Please Change format settings in the input plug-in configuration or change output device in WAV-Out plugin configuration.

"Error Code 32 Windows error message:

"The specified format is not supported or cannot be translated. Use the capabilities function to deterinme the supported formats"

I have all the input settings I'm supposed to have - especially WAV and FLAC - the two I use most, and I have the output device set to the Lynx, as suggested by the Reference Recordings recommendations for this setup ( the only difference in their reference setup, as you know, is that they are using a Berkley DAC. Otherwise, we're the same including operating system). And not supporting 44.1/16bits/2 channels is, totally at odds with what it should be doing, correct? That's redbook CD that it says it can't support (or translate). I do not know what the capabilities function is - can't find that. I looked up Error Code 32, and that is possibly related to the the extremely odd manner that Lynx wants you to install their drivers - in one of the several contradictory methods given for installing this card, it says you must download and install to C:/Lynx, then un-install, then go back and have the new hardware wizard point at C:/Lynx. Something like that. I've tried it every which way I can try it. At first I thought this was part of the problem as I just happen to use D: as my programs drive, but I think I've ironed all that out, but it still sounds like a problem, from reading what that code means. Here's what I found googling the error code:

"Code 32 (new in Windows 98)

Windows cannot install the drivers for this device because it cannot access the drive or network location that has the setup files on it. (Code 32)

To fix this problem, click Restart Computer to restart your computer. If that doesn't work copy all the setup files onto your local hard disk, and run setup from there.

Solution button: Restart Computer

This code indicates that the installation disk or CD-ROM was not available to install the drivers. For example, the CD-ROM drive or network connection is not available. This error typically occurs during the first or second reboot after all the files are copied during Setup.

To resolve this issue, first attempt to restart as suggested. If this does not resolve the problem, determine why the installation disk or CD-ROM is not available. Typically, these devices also have Device Manager codes (such as the CD-ROM controller or network adapter). Resolve the issue to gain access to the installation disk or CD-ROM prior to resolving this conflict."

This all sounds familiar but I'm quite sure I've worked this out, but I DO BELIEVE has something to do with the fact that you MUST always download the files to C:/Lynx. In fact the Ref Recording site says, as does the quick start guide for the card, to cancel out of the Found Hardware Wizard and install manually - in the case of the Ref Recordings version, a specific file which they give you a link to. That's what I finally settled on, first just installing to D, then to C: Same result no matter what. Whew! Too much information, huh? Oh, well.

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks!

Daina

Hey Chris,

I failed to mention that I was previously briefly using an M-Audio Audiophile 192 card successfully with the Benchmark and Media Monkey on the same computer - I swapped up to the Lynx.

Thanks!

Daina

I had the very same problem , lynx 16aes on a XP PC, three different dacs, nothing, tried the 'legacy' drivers that BAD recommend still nothing, I am hoping that the PCie version with the current drivers on a mac Pro ( a la CC ) will work! Keith.

Oh, boy, that's not an encouraging sign. I'm using an older home made PC that I've had for awhile and it doesn't have PCIe, which is why I have the PCI version. Very stable, but nothing's working with this card. I've now tried my older DAC. Same thing. I have a lot of open PCI slots on the motherboard, so my plan is to uninstall everything tomorrow (or should I say later today), move the card to a different slot and start over, using the drivers and the procedure that Reference Recordings recommended (by the way, who is BAD?). Maybe it's something as innocuous at the slot I use. We'll see.

Thanks!

Daina

Daina let us know how you get on, installing and uninstalling drivers is about the limit of my computer skills, i did contact Lynx's technical department they were equally baffled , BAD= Berkeley Audio Design, Michael Ritter was helpful, but the drivers and firmware he recommends are no longer current, and I just couldn't simulate his specs. Keith.

Firstly, dainapoo, good luck with it!

The next bit is not normally advice people want to hear, (so I'll stick to the brief version!), but it may help when all else fails! One of the problems I have encountered many, many times in the past, when upgrading PCI components, is that everything gets confused by everything else - operating system-wise! Sometimes it works, mostly it all ends in tears. When swapping out one component for another it is nearly always better to start from scratch. i.e. Format the hard drive and completely re-install the Operating System

Briefly, Windows never properly uninstalls hardware device drivers, even though you've told it to, because it thinks you're being silly and will need them again in a minute! The left over Registry entries then get in the way of the new stuff coming in and............ , well, you know the rest!

As I said, a right royal pain-in-the-ar*e !! But, if you're sure that it all ought to work, i.e. all the new stuff is good, then a clean run at it is often by far the best way. And is normally the quickest, as well!!

I had much bitter experience with an m-audio card once and the only way I could get it to play was to re-install everything, with the integrated motherboard sound switched off in the Bios and the soundcard NOT fitted. Once everything was up and running the Soundcard drivers were installed, followed by the soundcard itself. Much re-booting later and it would output sound for me! Prior to all the messing about I had everything OK according to Windows, but no sound coming out of anything!

Anyway, good luck and maybe this will help.

Thanks Keith,

I completely, as far as I think is possible, un-installed the software, took out the card, re-installed it in another slot, followed the Reference Recordings method, which says was provided by Mr. Ritter (now I understand BAD!), to a Tee. I was able to find the specific drivers they mentioned and followed it exactly. I got the exact driver, the exact revision, I reset to default values as outlined.... etc etc. etc. However, my system said that the driver was not installed properly, and another 'multimedia audio card' popped up as 'found hardware', under the "Other" designation and it is also looking for a driver, nothing of which seems to help. Needless to say, when I tried Media Monkey it didn't work, saying that another program was using the card. I'd gotten that message before as well.

So, after rebooting, just for good luck, and seeing that it still didn't work, I un-installed and started over, using the method that was detailed in the Lynx AES 16 Quick Start Guide (I've also tried the method described in the full users manual - same result). What resulted was that I had installed the exact driver and revision as the Reference/Berkley method suggested and got the exact same results.

So, I guess I'm also going to call Lynx tomorrow. I've had other sound cards in the PC, most recently, an M-Audio Audiophile 192, playing through the Benchmark and my old DAC. There were no issues before this. I'm baffled.

Thanks!

Daina

Thanks Bob,

You may be correct, although I sincerely hope not. But I understand what you're talking about. I tried 'un-installing' the software, and then took the card out of the box and put it in another slot. No luck. I just recently upgraded this computer from 2000 to XP, which wasn't all that easy - had to call Microsoft to prove I owned the software and get new a new key. I only did that because I'm trying to upgrade my music server from 44.1/16 to 192/24 and Win 2K does not support resolutions past 96K. So, that was a few weeks ago, but, considering what I really thought it would take, this has definitely become a royal..... well, you know.

I'm going to try Lynx Supoort tomorrow and, if that doesn't work, I have one more potential ace in the hole - a son in law, who's a Windows/Linux Systems Administrator who has been there to help me through this entire process - when I went to upgrade to XP, for example, the power supply decided to take that instance as a good time to die. And he was the one who actually dealt with Microsoft, because he's had to do it many times before. Maybe he can clean out the registry entries without a full re-install of the software. Meanwhile, my humble Squeezebox continues to work nearly perfectly as does my old low tech CD player. I've moved my computer, changed the Lan connections from wired to wireless to wired again and changed internet providers - twice- and as hard as it seemed, at times, to keep the settings up to date in the Squeezebox, it's child's play compared to this. It just keeps on keeping on. Oh, and I've changed DACs as well to the higher rez Benchmark. Not so much as a hiccup.

Well, thanks for info. I'll keep you posted.

Daina

I was re-reading some of the old posts and came across what seemed to be a fair amount of frustration. This is exactly what computer audio does not need but unfortunately may be reality.

I too am having problems. I have both versions of the card and am in contact with Lynx. NO LUCK !!! Like I've read before, visually all looks well. I do the hardware test. Looks great. Hook it up to my Audio Logic 24mxl dac and nothing. I've tried XP pro, Vista, and OS X. If I had known what a pain in the a** this would be. I never would have ordered them. It's a long story why I ended up with both. I'm thinking of getting a Aqvox or Bryston dac to see if the cards work with the new hardware to try and prove it's not my dac at fault. Please keep the suggestions coming. I'm getting frustrated.

Joe

Dang, it stink having to deal with all these. I will pass on the Lynx card. It seems like troublesome as multiple users are having troubles. I hope lynx will stand up to provide support to resolve this for your all.

Hi Guys!

I was just getting around to making a post about what happened. THE PROBLEM HAS BEEN SOLVED!! Yahoo!!

Now, my solution may only apply to my situation, but you'll know if it applies to you after a few minutes of reading. In my case, the problem turned out to be an impedance mismatch. The AES 16 sends out a 110 Ohm signal through the XLR outputs of the 1604 cable. The Benchmark Dac 1 Pre, unlike the Dac 1 and Dac 1 USB does not offer an XLR input. In fact the SPDIF inputs are 75 Ohm, 1Vpp (standards AES3-id and SMPTE 276M). What I needed was an impedance transformer. The one that worked with the cables I had on hand was a Canare BCJ-XJ-TRB Impedance Transformer, Digital Audio, 110 to 75 Ohm, Female XLR to Female BNC. It's about 3 inches long, has a Female XLR connector on one end at 110 Ohms and a Female BNC connector on the other, operating at 75 Ohms. I connected it to the end of the Output 1 Male XLR connector on the Lynx 1604 cable (the one with the 4 ins and 4 outs). I happened to have a male BNC to female RCA adapter already on hand, which I connected to the other end of the adapter and finally, I connected a nice digital SPDIF cablet to the RCA female from that adapter. What a mess!! But, it works, and I'm told that since it stays in the digital domain, the signal is intact.

This took EVERYONE to figure this out. Lynx, my dealer, Benchmark, and me. I found the Canare myself. The Lynx tech, who was very willing to help out, and knows alot about their work with Reference Recordings, when they put together their reference system for their new HrX recordings (Lynx AES 16, Media Monkey and Berkley Dac), was great. I'll give you his contact info at the end. He initially worked with me to get the drivers properly installed. It was then that I mentioned that, after reading the DAC 1 Pre's owner's manual again, that the Benchmark was looking for 75 Ohms (See page 12 in the owner's manual if you have a DAC 1 Pre), and it appeared that the Lynx was sending out 110. Now, the card came with an XLR to SPDIF (RCA) adapter cable, but he verified that it stayed in the 110 Ohm domain. He was frankly puzzled that the Benchmark was looking for 75 Ohms and wasn't even sure that this was true AES/EBU. But we need to remember that all these products were designed for Pro Audio applications, and Benchmark is using a spec that is not used much in Pro audio, if at all, apparently. So, the dealer, a pro audio shop, and Lynx, both thought it was not a technically recognized spec. Anyway, a light bulb went off in both of our heads at about the same time, while on the first call. He even found one solution while on the phone- somewhat expensive, but it would work. Meanwhile I then communicated our phone call to the dealer, who called Benchmark to see if they had a solution. While I was waiting, over the weekend, for their reply, I found exactly what Benchmark wound up recommending.

If this sounds like your situation, this should solve it. The guy from Lynx, who walked me through the driver install on the first call, is very helpful and willing to help. Here's his contact info:

Paul Erlandson

Lynx Studio Technology, Inc.

(714) 545-4700 X 206

He has been great.

Here's the link to that particular impedance transformer I found - http://www.fullcompass.com/product/258528.html.

About $22.

Here's the link to Reference Recording's reference system setup, all of which applied, except for the DAC itself -

http://www.referencerecordings.com/HRxSETUPS.asp

I'd like to thank my dealer, Eric Dahlberg at JRR International Music Shop. He hung in there with me to the very end!

Eric Dahlberg

JRR Shop

PH: 949-553-1022

FX: 949-263-1818

http://www.jrrshop.com

http://www.justroots.com

I originally called him only about the sound card, but he is a Benchmark Dealer, so I wound up ordering both from him.- all over the phone. Personal service IS still alive, and we BOTH learned a lot!

One last thing. After I got it working, I was still a little unsatisfied because other audiophile friends of mine kept telling me I needed to use the ASIO drivers on the Lynx card for better sound. But I kept having trouble getting anything higher in resolution than Red Book CD to play with ASIO. I could get WAV OUT to work, but what I'd read was that ASIO bypassed all the ugly (sounding) stuff in Windows, like KMixer. But I re- read the Reference Recordings thing and noted that they actually recommended WAV OUT as well. So, I called Paul at Lynx again and he indicated that Ref Recordings recommended the older version of the Lynx Mixer because it used WAV OUT version 1, which is much like ASIO in its ability to bypass all the Windows controls. Follow those directions on Reference Recordings link exactly and you will have the older Wav out and get the benefits of using it. He DID give me some things to try out for the ASIO as he was not sure why I was having the problems. I'm still working on that, but, at this point, I'm in sync with Reference Recordings, and that's good enough for me - I've been working on this since mid summer, so I'm just happy to have it finally all working. Paul is patient and he's knowledgeable about what we audiophiles are trying to do. If you have SPDIF inputs on your DAC, like me, nothing will work until you get the impedance (and its cabling) sorted out, and once I did, all the other stuff was small stuff.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions!

Daina

Daina, thanks for sharing this detailed info and your experiences. The new incoming CA posts seemed a little slow and so I started re-reading some of the old forum posts. There is such a wealth of information on this website I often re-read the posts carefully and pick up things I may have missed or that I now view in a different way because of accumulated knowledge.

I’m glad things worked out well for you, I was a little worried. Fortunately Lynx Studio and Benchmark Media are two highly respected and technically superb companies.

The Benchmark USB DAC1 that I often use has an XLR input so I don’t expect to experience your initial difficulties. But it’s great to know that there are solutions for using the ‘Audiophile Reference Music Server For A Song’ with DACs that only have digital coaxial inputs. I like flexibility and will probably pick up the impedance transformer you recommended. You never know what the tide will bring in tomorrow.

Hi Everyone,

I broke down and ordered a new dac. The Aqvox usb2 d/a mk II. It has 4 digital inputs. I finally received it after 2 months of waiting. Needless to say, the problem I was having is not the Lynx aes16 cards, there must be a lock issue with my old dac. When I plug in my Lynx to my Aqvox, instant lock! Boy is my face red. Holy cow, this is cool! I have a new fresh outlook. Thank you to Chris of Computer Audiophile, everyone's posts in the forums and Lynx for the help. Keep up the good work Chris. It's getting more fun!

Joe

Hey Joeinid,

Great to hear! I'm finally getting to really listen to my system - do some serious setup. Has anyone read Jim Smith's book?- Get Better Sound? I got it for Christmas, along with some analog (Santa found it easier to buy vinyl- how weird is that?) Anyway, a good read. I've been at this off and on for over 30 years, and there are still some things I did not know and many I'd forgotten. But I re-arranged my listening room (which is my living room), placing virtually nothing but my speakers on the front wall and have my system on a side wall. That alone made an immediate improvement - bass and imaging for sure. (I DO have my CRT based 26 inch TV in between, which will most likely finally be replaced by a flat screen some time this year). Now I'm going through the step by step instructions to dial in perfect speaker setup. Anyway, I'm all for any improvement that doesn't cost a fortune and the $50 investment has been paid for several times over already. I have limited options, but I was able to move everything, more or less, where they would produce the best sound and still be functional. Like he says, many of us audiophiles are not getting half what we paid for if we don't have proper setup.

Glad things worked out!

Daina

Hi Daina,

Thanks for the kind words. I'm thinking about getting Jim's book. His book has received a lot of praise on other forums. My listening room is my bedroom and is kinda' tough to arrange everything just for the audio system. I am generally happy with the sound but do need some room treatments though. Glad to read you are getting more enjoyment out of your system. That's the whole point, right? CRT tv? What's that? I can't even give away a couple of unused 21" CRT computer monitors that I have. Good luck with the room and audio stuff.

Joe

Yea, tell me about it! I have a 19 inch monitor laying on the floor. I replaced it with a used flat screen that I'm using with my music server. So far I've been unable to give it away. I've been listening to my Lynx based music server more and more and it really is fairly significantly better than what I was using previously for digital music- a Squeezebox. I still have the Squeezebox in the system, connected to the Benchmark DAC, and I use it for everyday listening. It's convenient, but now that I've moved the system and re-arranged the cabinet, it's much easier to use the computer. That said, I'd really like to find a smart device to control the server from my listening spot. Any ideas on that? iPhone? Something else? Well, .......... it will all have to wait for now. I'm a recently unemployed technical recruiter, and the prospects for us folks ain't too hot right now. So, I'm probably going to have to go do something else for awhile. My daughter gave me the records, from Acoustic Sounds and Music Direct. Very nice. But, seeing as that I spent the better part of a year updating my music server, especially upgrading it so that I could play hi-rez files, I probably should have underlined the digital stuff on my 'wish list'.

Well, take care and happy listening!

Daina