Hello there,

I'm trying to make a choice for my monitoring conversion setup and I'm really torn between the either the Cranesong Solaris or Lynx Hilo.

What is your experience with these converters? I rarely see anybody compare them with each other?

Can you help me make a choice?

I'm coming from the regular Lynx Aurora 16.

they all sound fine. But think about that for same amount of money the Solaris is just a stereo DA, Hilo is AD/ double DA and Prism is a 6 in 4 outputs AD/DA/Mic pre etc. I think the Solaris is in another class of products (i own 2x).

Can you specify on why it's another class of products? Is it worth surrendering the features of having a da / ad with the Hilo for example and picking up the Solaris?

To me yes since i own 2 Solaris. The concept is Solaris stay in the ballpark of a specialized 2 channel DAC costing around 1000 per channel. You find in the same category Mytek Brooklyn, Dangerous, Lavry, Burl, Forssell etc. and can compare those with much higher cost Prism Dream, Lavry Gold, Weiss etc. In he ADDA class you should consider for comparison Hedd Quantum (quite twice the price) vs the Hilo or say the Merging Anubis or Antelope Pure or Amari. The multichannel stuff are Prism ADA8XR, DAAD, Merging Horus/ Hapi, etc.

In your question you selected 3 different class of products: a specialized 2 channel DAC, an IO stereo device (3 pairs) and an Audio card, 5 pairs IO with preamps all in the same price. So the single converter channel cost comparison is like 1000 vs 350 vs 200$.

I understand but how does the Solaris sonically compare to the Hilo? With the Hilo, I'm afraid that I'll be buying an interface which has an aged sound? I always loved Lynx and I would always try to save a buck but how does the Solaris simply compare sonically to the Hilo?

IMHO you should give them a try at your place. You'll find fans of all the products you mentioned.

Solaris is King. Acquire it today. For d/a Far Far above the others listed.

Ability to retrieve detail is superior
Lowest jitter design
Best neutral sound--tells what is recorded without euphonic coloration or amateur hour curve appeal
Best monitor controller design
Best unit by far

Buy it today

Has anyone compared it with the Hilo? I mean the Hilo was already in one shootout the only converter which kept the source original and didn't introduce any changes. I mean, what else would you want from a converter? I don't feel like paying cranesong for the marketing hype if the Hilo was already performing well at that end?

There was a shootout where they send audio through the Hilo several times and the sound didn't change of the source file.

I feel like people just go here by priced and don't compare the interfaces by how they actually perform.

is a bit problematic to test every product available in ABX, since my suggestion to try them in your room and decide what's the best for you. I never had the Hilo, but neither selected the Solaris upon forum posts. I had several others before, like Benchmark, Lavry etc, and did a comparison with Weiss, Antelope and Prism Dream. To me Solaris stands between the best DACs available in a price range up to 4 times his cost. Sure there are some fancy units available that will be better but at 20 or 25 times the cost. Is not my business so to me no matter to investigate.

Personally i don't like very much all the hilo loopbacks that i have listened.
Sound clean and surely you can make good job with it, but for me she lack mid information, sub bass, for example the kick is in "background", lack of solid lowend...

If you just need a DA, you can buy high-end converter like Solaris ( if you have good room and monitors...)
, if you need tow DA and one AD you don't have many possibilities in this budget, Hilo, Lyra, Anubis, Rme adi pro...

But have you compared it with the original audio? The loopback?

Yes of course. It's a personal taste, a lot of people like Hilo converters...

Nonsense! I wrote because I know and have used all three of the converters you mention. Cranesong does not engage in "marketing hype."



Keep guessing!

All converters change the sound in some way. Solaris is the best dac out there.

Yah another vote for Solaris. It takes a second to get used to them - they are very detailed. I have found the USB to sound better than the AES and also the fixed outputs sound different than the ones going through the stepped attenuator. Just experiment once you get it. The crystal clock also sounds better over time - it doesn't make sense, but this was straight from Dave's mouth.

Neil

Looks like he bought Solaris and looks like it’s in his classified section

Maybe he’ll keep it but funny he’s selling it! My take on this is, if you can’t do great work on any of these it ain’t the converter. All of these are being used by top flight mastering engineers.

I own Prism Atlas (x2) which I mainly use for summing, Hedd Quantum for analog loop and Solaris as my main DAC to speakers. In my opinion they are at a different level, Crane Song Quantum converters are very detailed and they sound fantastic. Prism Atlas (same as Lyra) sound great but is on a different league, actually I have them clocked with Hedd and they sound better. Never tried Hilo.
Good luck
Pablo Schuller

I own Prism Atlas (x2) which I mainly use for summing, Hedd Quantum for analog loop and Solaris as my main DAC to speakers. In my opinion they are at a different level, Crane Song Quantum converters are very detailed and they sound fantastic. Prism Atlas (same as Lyra) sound great but is on a different league, actually I have them clocked with Hedd and they sound better. Never tried Hilo.
Good luck
Pablo Schuller

It depends what you want, either enhanced sound or an exact representation of what it's been feed and I'm looking for the latter.

If you're wanting accuracy the Solaris is exactly what you're looking for. If you can't hear what it brings compared to your older DA, your monitoring setup may be at fault.

The Solaris changes the sound, like a HiFi tool. I wanted something that's neutral and I found it.

Nope. it does not change the sound. Something is wrong at your place.
Believe it!

I don't need to believe it, I have 15 years of experience and was hearing that the Solaris was changing the sound so I did a loopback test with the HEDD and yup, it's doing a HiFi thing on the sound.

The remarkable thing about the Solaris is that it's the converter that has the closest, truest to the source mid range sound of any converter that I tried but the low end high end are just off and that's pissing me off. It is very audible on drums and lead vocals.

Just do a loopback test and compare it with the original audio, nobody needs to believe and simply measure it, that'll give you all your answers instead of a biased opinionated listening test.

If I go in with a sound and it comes back heavily altered, then it's changing it, period.

The thing is, people like some converters for their sound, such is the case with the Solaris, but I don't like converters that are adding a sound, otherwise there wouldn't be a market for things such as the Lavry.

Hello Playa,

What is a "hifi thing?"

I can record listening to the console and then switch to monitor the Solaris DAC. Same tonal balance, same sound.

A HiFi thing is boosted highs and boosted lows, that's also what the Lavry does.

When it came to mid range clarity, I did prefer the the dangerous 2 convert a lot better.

There is actually a print back comparison which I found after I had already tested the Solaris myself, which I wish I had found before my purchase:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z6wcsl5in...8K7nEKqmSWsKxg

Align the tracks, flip the phase with the original (source track) and you'll hear what the converter is adding.

It's pretty pointless to argue what you hear with these converters. If you like the results thst someone else doesn't, its just personal preference.

By the way, I talked to two mastering engineers who love the Hilo converters and are not interested in anything else. Go figure

Here is a great review of the Hilo by a former BBC engineer who compared it to seveal other high end converters. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/lynx-hilo

That's where I ended up. Just trying to figure out of I should go with the Hilo or Aurora N

Can you break this down for us again? So..

We have two identical stereo master WAV files. We take 1 and send it out 1 converter (Solaris) and back in another (some other A/D)? And what about the Stereo WAV we are comparing to? How do we isolate the D/A from the A/D going back in? The one we are comparing to has to have had the same A/D process - otherwise we have two extra stages on the one we looped out - I am sure this is sorted out in this test, I just need it explained.

Thanks
Neil

What did you end up going with?

It's done with the HEDD quantum, which is pretty much a solatis with AD. You don't want to mix the Solaris with another converter due to the change in filters so it has to be the same type.

It's out of the HEDD back into the HEDD, one roundtrip and that shows you what the converter is doing sonically.

I was actually impressed by how close the Solaris is getting to the source track on the mid range but it was off as hell on the lows and 10k upwards area, which is pretty much what a HiFi curve Looks like.
I'll be going with Lynx, it's the closest to the source that I would get. I'm just torn between the Aurora (n) and Hilo at the moment but my destination is Lynx when it comes to being true to the source after I've tried Anubis, Solaris and Dangerous now.

I see. Interesting. I should check this out. And we’re certain nothing from the cabling looping the HEDD was doing something right? How so this test is performed by anything that has an A/D and a D/A of the same type / within the same unit.

I guess I’m surprised by those results. I should test my Aurora out. Have you tried the original aurora? I’ve been wanting to get an (n) but itll be a costly switch. But not as much if I also sell my Solaris. Problem there is I love having a separate unit that can also run computer audio - ie something that can be switched to usb while still in pro tools of necessary to hear the computer audio against my AES PT feed.