RME Fireface 400/800 vs. Lynx Two

Pluses and minuses for one or the other? Assuming the DAW is a desktop of course since the Lynx is a PCI card... which would you choose and why?

Lynx has better low latency operation, for sure.

FWIW, Don't be so quick to write off Firewire when it comes to low-latency performance.

I mentioned this a few days back...
Using a 32-Sample ASIO buffer size with a MOTU 896HD:
I can record 20 solid channels of 24Bit/44.1k audio.
Then, while playing these 20 channels of audio, I can record another 20 channels (while using software-based input monitoring to hear the incoming audio). Completely glitch-free...
Total round-trip latency of 4ms (ASIO input/output buffers, hidden safety buffer, and latency from A/D and D/A converters).

The Lynx cards are great... but they won't offer any substantial low-latency performance benefit above this.

Edit: Forgot to mention that this was using a fast DAW (3.2GHz/1600MHz Core2Quad).

hmm... Very intresting.. Thanks Jim.
I guess w/ CPUs this powerfull, it's getting to be less and less an issue now?


Edit - PS not writing off firewire for low latency as my FF400 does just fine ;) hehe

Jim, are the drivers for Lynx PCI cards as robust as the RME (and MOTU) drivers?

There have been a fair amount of issues with "motorboating"/etc... so Lynx wouldn't be my personal first choice.

Is the "motorboating" a driver issue? I was under the impression it was an IRQ slot conflict.

If that were the case, we'd be seeing a lot more "motorboating"...

man have I been out of the loop a long time.
Back to just reading! hehe

Thanks, Scott, very much. Sounds like RME gets the nod for stability and that's a big plus for me certainly.

Now on the last point, the conversion quality... can you sum up the difference in AD/DA quality? IOW, depth of sound stage, linearity, sweetness of top end, solidness of bottom end, and so forth.

Reason is I've always heard Lynx was the best sounding conversion this side of the expensive (Apogee, Lavry, etc.) converter options. Not that I've heard bad about RME but so much conflicting opinions flying around on the inter-web... there's a shootout at GS where they blind-tested the RME against Rosetta and it held its own. Others (snobs perhaps?) say the RME is cold and sterile.

Oh and one other question... do you recommend using FW800 with the FF-800 or is FW400 a better bet?

Good point about Aurora, which is supposed to be a hair better than the Lynx Two cards. Which makes sense since it was developed several years after.

Likewise I assume the FF-800 and FF-400 are a hair better than the earlier Multiface.

Reports have been that the FF-800 is still the best sounding one of the RME. The FF-400 "should" have sounded the same or better but I remember some posters saying it does not sound as good as the FF-800. The FF-800 is still the known good thing in external interfaces.

Some (many, most) people judge "sound" by looking only at the specs. I doubt most views on the subject are based on head to head comparisons. RME decided that using the single AKM chip for both AD and DA conversion on the FF400 sounded the best, and I trust their judgment.

I think the RME and Lynx are really 2 different animals. Fireface is an external box with preamps and flexible I/O. The Lynx is a high quality converter, buy you need to provide the analog front end.

Personally, I would go with RME if you are in the market for an interface, because I have never heard anyone say "Boy my Fireface is so glitch-y, and the routing options are so limited."