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Originally Posted by
Blenn
β‘οΈ
Nope - had no expectations at all. Read my post!
Paul ... I can tell you're a nice guy ... but WTF ... telling me to read your post, when I obviously read your post, obviously responded to it quite directly ...
and you absolutely wrote about your expectations in that post ...
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I honestly thought the difference would be subtle over my Lynx 2 and it is but it's also not.
Was that not an expectation? Was it not actually in your post? Am I insane?
Have
you actually read your post?
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Bear in mind, incidentally, 1 x Aurora 8 = Β£1650 coupled with a AES16-E (with SRC) card would be a total of Β£2250. The Orpheus is Β£2950 (Β£750 more) Yet it offers 4 preamps as well. So the AD/DA is inline, price wise, with the Lynx and Apogee products.
In the U.S., those two Lynx items are $2800 and the Orpheus is $5000 (MAP), so it's a pretty big price difference. I guess that's not the case in England?
You make a great point about the preamps, though. Neither Lynx, Prism nor Apogee's top converter systems include high-end preamps. But unlike the Orpheus, Apogee's integrated interface product (Ensemble) is not purported to include their top-class converters. Prism has basically said, despite being an integrated interface, Orpheus basically includes the best of everything sonically.
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So no - it's not apples for apples I merely was shocked at how my beloved Lynx 2 AD/DA just got knocked out the ball park by something I was just not expecting it to!
Okay ... you just said you weren't "expecting" something ... so it that an expectation, or the lack of an expectation ... my head hurts and it's late ...
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Incidentally - I've used the RME Fireface and it does not sound better than the Lynx 2 for me nor, after had a demo unit, did I find the Aurora 8 with a AES16 card sound significantly better than my Lynx 2 either.
See, that is noteworthy and very interesting. Just don't go telling the Fireface people, those people are crazy. They'll kill you. Have you seen that insane listening test thread?
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I know it's hard to tell on boards the feeling behind the words people type - but your post comes across a little sarcastic and pedantic. Not nice really when all I'm doing, especially whilst in the throws of genuine amazement, is post a little bit of information that a lot of people would like to read.
I appreciate the generous style of your reproach, Paul, so let me be honest and just admit it -- my post came off as "a little sarcastic and pedantic" because it was in fact sarcastic and pedantic.
We may simply disagree about what's appropriate in that regard -- I don't think being nice and enthused excuses someone from having their claims or arguments questioned. If the goal is to provide useful information for people, then I'd think you would agree with the basic idea.
I genuinely think it's a problem for things to get overpraised based on the reviewer not really knowing the playing field well. Some other folks will go nuts over the Lynx when all they've ever used before was a 96 i/o -- that's equally egregious. And I've read and heard constant Big Ben recommendations from people who previously were using Digi 888's as their master clocks. These people think they've discovered a great product, when all they've really discovered is the joy of not using garbage for conversion -- something many of us had already discovered 7-8 years ago.
So your post kind of set off that alarm with me ... replacing the $1000 system with the $5000 system, and loving the upgrade ... that just doesn't tell us much about the Orpheus. What people really need to know is, how dramatic is the difference with the Ensemble, how does it compare to other Prism systems that are well established, how does it compare with high-end Apogee and Mytek and Lavry systems. How it compares with a LynxTwo just doesn't tell potential buyers much, unless they're just looking for any good news at all.
You eventually mentioned, in your last post, that you did eventually get to compare Orpheus to the Lynx Aurora, but that wasn't part of your original post. To me, that detail would have made the original post a lot more valuable. I am seriously considering Orpheus as a future purchase, and while eventually I will listen for myself, I would love to see some useful comparisons.
JSL