Lynx AES16e - audio quality, convenience/user friendliness

[Gadgety]

Hi,

 

I'm new around here. My audio set up uses Squeezebox:es as transports. I enjoy the flexibility and ability to have instantaneous access to the music, although the SB set up is two channel only. I'm putting together a new PC and I'm looking into the Lynx AES16e for it's ability to serve up multichannel audio. Since I've seen there are a few of the forum members who use the AES16e, I'd like to ask what it's like in daily usage for listening, both in terms of audio quality, and in terms of convenience. I use digital amps and they have AES/EBU inputs. I won't be using 5.1, but rather a 4.1 set up (no center channel).

 

What are your experiences with the AES16e? What made you go for it, and what's it like on a daily basis?

 

Is it hard to set up the software? What about the interface - does it take long to suss out?

 

Is it fiddly, or is it dependable, will it just play, once it's been set up?

 

Sound quality compared to other options today (in case you've made comparisons)?

 

I'm curious as to whether it's possible to mix say, multichannel audio converted to FLAC, or just LPCM, into a 4.1 mix through the AES16e software?

 

I appreciate your input.

[mojave]

I use digital amps and they have AES/EBU inputs.

What amps are you using?

 

What are your experiences with the AES16e? What made you go for it, and what's it like on a daily basis?

I've only used mine since April. I purchased it because I wanted to try an 8 channel DAC which only has AES input.

 

Is it hard to set up the software? What about the interface - does it take long to suss out?Is it fiddly, or is it dependable, will it just play, once it's been set up?

It took about 5 minutes to install the card and drivers. I didn't have to change anything in the mixer. Once setup, you don't have to do anything again.

 

I'm curious as to whether it's possible to mix say, multichannel audio converted to FLAC, or just LPCM, into a 4.1 mix through the AES16e software?

I don't think you can create a 4.1 mix with the AES16e software. I use JRiver Media Center for all my playback and it does all the mixing and routing easily.

[bobkatz]

The AES16 software can mix and matrix any combination of inputs to outputs. You can also load presets or scenes so if you want to change your mix you can do that by loading a new scene rather than painstakingly reassigning channels or levels.

 

So, let's say you want to reduce a 5.1 mix to a 4.1. You take the center channel, reduce it 6 dB, and assign it to left and right outputs. Done! This is easily done in the Lynx AES16 mixer.

 

Also, remember to engage the (24 bit) dither on any channels which are part of that matrix, to preserve resolution as you are then performing calculations. In this case you should turn the dither on in the center channel which has been reduced and is being sent to the left and right outputs. The existing left and right channels which are going to the existing left and right front speakers do not have to be dithered as long as they remain at 0 dB gain and assigned to their respective single outputs.

 

There is, of course, a chance of overload when combining center channel information with existing left and right into the left and right, and customarily people reduce the digital levels of everything, say, 3 dB to protect from overload. There are meters and sticky peak indicators in the AES 16 mixer so you can see for yourself if you need to attenuate. Just pick the loudest, most percussive sources you have and do some tests on them. If you are playing material from movies mixes, usually the center channel information is dialogue so it may not add in together with the left and right front enough to overload. Very few music only mixes use significant amount of information in the center channel so in any case I estimate 3 dB will probably be enough reduction to "cover your ass". In that case, you will have to dither all the outputs as you will have to reduce all the outputs equally to retain the interchannel balance.

 

The same goes for 7.1 you want to reduce to 4.1. You can matrix the two "leftish" surrounds into your left surround speaker and chances are they will never overload because rarely is there full level information in any surround channel. But again, play the loudest, most "percussive" material you have and inspect the peak levels in the AES-16 mixer to see. If you only have a couple of 7.1 sources and most of your sources are 5.1, you can leave the summing matrix engaged as the mixer is effectively noise-free and will not add any audible noise to the surrounds even though those channels are not in use.

 

Lastly, be aware that if any of your 5.1 sources were derived from SACD, the SACD standard used an LFE channel that was not aligned to +10 dB. This is the most ridiculous, crazy thing in the world and defeated the whole purpose of the LFE channel as a special effects channel with more headroom, but anyway, what this means is if you are playing any FLACs which were digitally derived from an SACD, turn down the LFE channel in the Lynx mixer by 10 dB to hear the balance intended by the SACD producer. Provided he knew that fact and aligned his system correctly in the first place! A lot of producers making SACDs may have left their LFE channels aligned for standard 5.1 PCM mixes and forgot to realign them for SACD production. In that case as always, use your ears. If the bass part sounds weak, turn the LFE up.

 

Watch those meters in the Lynx mixer, they will help you identify how and whether the LFE channel is being used at all. Different producers had different ideas of its purpose, and sometimes they used it to supplement the bass instrument unnecessarily, but only in order to see something wiggling in that meter so that they felt they were "accomplishing something". Something silly, but you as the consumer have to be aware of it to hear what the producer intended.

 

Hope this helps,

 

 

 

Bob

 

 

Hi,

 

I'm new around here. My audio set up uses Squeezebox:es as transports. I enjoy the flexibility and ability to have instantaneous access to the music, although the SB set up is two channel only. I'm putting together a new PC and I'm looking into the Lynx AES16e for it's ability to serve up multichannel audio. Since I've seen there are a few of the forum members who use the AES16e, I'd like to ask what it's like in daily usage for listening, both in terms of audio quality, and in terms of convenience. I use digital amps and they have AES/EBU inputs. I won't be using 5.1, but rather a 4.1 set up (no center channel).

 

What are your experiences with the AES16e? What made you go for it, and what's it like on a daily basis?

 

Is it hard to set up the software? What about the interface - does it take long to suss out?

 

Is it fiddly, or is it dependable, will it just play, once it's been set up?

 

Sound quality compared to other options today (in case you've made comparisons)?

 

I'm curious as to whether it's possible to mix say, multichannel audio converted to FLAC, or just LPCM, into a 4.1 mix through the AES16e software?

 

I appreciate your input.

[bobkatz]

Also, I play 7.1 sources here just ignoring the surround extra channels. I simply play the 5.1 as I believe that adding two surrounds together electrically into one channel will not authentically translate the 7.1 experience into 5.1. I just let sleeping dogs lie. So I'm not performing any matrixing at all in my Lynx mixer as I have a 5.1 system.

[schawo]

Hi,

 

I'm new around here. My audio set up uses Squeezebox:es as transports. I enjoy the flexibility and ability to have instantaneous access to the music, although the SB set up is two channel only. I'm putting together a new PC and I'm looking into the Lynx AES16e for it's ability to serve up multichannel audio. Since I've seen there are a few of the forum members who use the AES16e, I'd like to ask what it's like in daily usage for listening, both in terms of audio quality, and in terms of convenience. I use digital amps and they have AES/EBU inputs. I won't be using 5.1, but rather a 4.1 set up (no center channel).

 

What are your experiences with the AES16e? What made you go for it, and what's it like on a daily basis?

 

Is it hard to set up the software? What about the interface - does it take long to suss out?

 

Is it fiddly, or is it dependable, will it just play, once it's been set up?

 

Sound quality compared to other options today (in case you've made comparisons)?

 

I'm curious as to whether it's possible to mix say, multichannel audio converted to FLAC, or just LPCM, into a 4.1 mix through the AES16e software?

 

I appreciate your input.

 

I use AES16 (the pci version) on daily basis. The driver is rock solid on mac and on windows, as well. The sound quality is decent compared to top usb spdif converters, you won't miss them for a single second.

[Gadgety]

What amps are you using?

 

Thank you for your reply. I use Tact amps/power DACs.

 

Great to hear that once set up, it just plays.

[Gadgety]

Bob, thank you for this rich and detailed answer. Not everyday I get replies from a legendary producer!

 

The AES16 software can mix and matrix any combination of inputs to outputs. You can also load presets or scenes so if you want to change your mix you can do that by loading a new scene rather than painstakingly reassigning channels or levels.

 

OK, I read this as I can select a preset or scene and apply that to all 5.1 material. Or I can "remaster" material, or create new scenes for certain types of material. Is my understanding correct? Sounds almost too good! I will never get out of my listening room!

[Gadgety]

I use AES16 (the pci version) on daily basis. The driver is rock solid on mac and on windows, as well. The sound quality is decent compared to top usb spdif converters, you won't miss them for a single second.

 

Fantastic! Thank you!