OverviewI had a chance to do a comparison of the following DACs:
- Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty (PCIe)
- Steinberg MR816x (external firewire)
- Aurora 8 LT-USB (external USB)
I included the Creative because it's my standby: reliable, does well in the tests below, and is affordable. The other two are from companies with great reputations and are
recommended in this thread.
The three represent completely different price points. You decide whether that makes the comparison interesting or silly. Also, I'm just a guy in his home theater (read man cave) trying his best to provide some useful information. I'm not a professional reviewer and the notes are from me personally, not JRiver.
My focus is on high-quality multi-channel analog output direct into a power amplifier. In this model, a computer running Media Center does all the sound processing, the DAC converts the digital signal to analog and the result goes straight into a power amplifier.
VolumeAll else being equal, a louder DAC is better. It's nice to have volume headroom, even if it's only to future-proof yourself. I am especially sensitive to this because I use the same amplifier for my subwoofer and mains, which means mains are around -20dB; in other words I need +20dB compared to a more typical installation.
1st place: Steinberg, Lynx
2nd place: Creative (about 10dB quieter than the other two as measured by a decibel meter)
The main difference here is that Steinberg and Lynx target +4dBu (optional with the Lynx) and Creative targets -10dBu.
Line noiseWhen connecting a DAC to a power amplifier, it's important that the DAC is as quiet as possible (hiss, hum, etc.). Anything extra coming out of the DAC gets amplified and heard.
1st place: Lynx
2nd place: Creative
3rd place: Steinberg
The Lynx takes the cake here. It's louder AND has less line noise than the Creative in -10dBu mode. In +4dBu mode it's about the same as the Creative (1dB more line noise) but capable of much higher output volume. The Steinberg is the worst by about 8dB, and approaches too much noise to be acceptable (the amount of noise in the Steinberg remains unchanged even with the firewire cable unplugged, so it's not a computer noise issue).
Power on/off noiseSome DACs make bad noises when they turn on and off. This can be downright scary when you use a power amplifier.
1st place: Creative
2nd place: Steinberg
3rd place: Lynx
Creative has this figured out. If you power off, on, reboot, or whatever nothing bad comes out the speakers. The Steinberg makes a loud pop when you power it on and quiet one when you power it off. The Lynx makes a really loud pop when you power on and a loud pop when you power it off.
Power consumptionI don't have a way to measure the power consumption of the internal Creative card, so I'll just post the test results for the other two:
Steinberg: 2W (off) / 22W (playing)
Lynx: 6W (off) / 24W (playing)
DriverThis gets a little more subjective than the other tests, but I'm a software guy so it's probably the only thing I'm actually qualified to talk about
1st place: Lynx
2nd place: Steinberg
3rd place: Creative
Lynx gets it right. Clean, simple, and does the job. Thank you.
Steinberg isn't far behind, but it offers a lot more settings and spreads them around a bit.
Creative drivers are reliable once configured but completely baffling to setup properly, at least for me. As an example, by default ASIO routing sends some channels to speakers nobody has (like 'rear top') and then since you don't have that speaker mixes the output back to several other speakers. It also doesn't default to bit-matched, makes you dig to get the software to even enable bit-matched, etc.
Reliability / Signal breakupsThis is also a little subjective, and probably varies depending on your computer. I'll just report my results.
1st place (tie): Creative / Lynx
2nd place: Steinberg
The Creative card is completely reliable, which is one of the nice things about an internal card. The only issue is that a power loss has caused the driver to lose all its settings on multiple occasions (resulting in tech support calls to me from my family members).
I haven't used the Lynx as long as the other two, but I've yet to have a signal drop even at 192kHz / 8 channel.
I had troubles getting the firewire Steinberg to not drop when scrolling in webpages, ripping multiple discs at once, etc. This is a pretty fast machine (JRMark 4820), and I tried three firewire interfaces, adjusting firewire buffer sizes, and hardware buffer sizes. It was fine during watching a movie, TV, or listening -- only multi-tasking stressed it out.
FeaturesI'll just mention a few features of note for each DAC.
Lynx
- Can hardware switch between +4dBu and 10dBu (if you don't need the volume, you'll get a little less line noise in the lower setting)
- Available in 8 or 16 channel models
- DAC natively supports up to 192kHz
Steinberg
- Has phantom power microphone input right on the front which is great for doing measurements for convolution
Creative
- Leaves you with money for your kids' braces
.
SummaryThe Lynx wins this one. It's the best at all the things that really matter -- reliable, loud, clean. It's expensive, but it earns it.
The Creative is easy to recommend because it's affordable and still pretty darn good.
The Steinberg is a mixed bag. For me the line noise is too high, and the firewire a little too touchy. However, the higher levels and more straight-forward drivers are better than the Creative.
Full test notes can be
downloaded here (they're boring, but I'm offering them for completeness).