Lynx Aurora

Instead, you just adapt this thing around the conditions of how you work and it lasts a lot longer for people, I think, than our competitors' products...

On our final card we not only have Thunderbolt connectivity, word clock I-O, but also eight line in and eight line out on D sub connectors. This is a ...

It's user serviceable, although at Sound Pure we'll even swap one in and out for you.

I was interested in the Lynx Aurora N converters for their trusted quality converters for multi-tracking sessions. I think it is great that you can swap out and add IO and sound cards modules. I am also aware of the new Avid Protools Carbon interface coming out soon with a hybrid DSP engine that lets one use both DSP plugins along with native plugins simultaneously while mixing or for use while tracking and monitoring a sweet feature that only works with protools.

(I use lynx aurora 16 for important stuff and a steinberg ur22 for portable applications. I vouch for both but they may not suit your needs (and neither is 8in/they're both discontinued)).

We can output realtime headphone mixes (no DAW required) via the Lynx's control panel software. The Apogee AD-16x can also feed ADAT/SMUX to another smaller interface, like a usb motu or a digi003 or whatever. This can be expanded with additional linked Lynx AES cards and additional Apogees (or Lynx Aurora 8/16 if you can afford) for 32 channels or more. So, it's a flexible setup which can be upgraded a-piece-at-a-time as you have funds.

If the ada8200 breaks your budget, you could always look for a used ada8000. Pretty solid unit that can be had for CHEAP. There is a gearspace thread where most users picked it over the much more expensive lynx aurora in a blind shootout.

Depending on your computer, a used lynx aurora usb 8 or 16 would do the job great, you can find the 16 channels for about 1000 and the quality is fantastic

The biggest problem, which makes them sound lackluster or boring, is when you are using cheap preamps with them. I had them on a 100 dollar preamp /dac when I first tried them and was baffled as to why they sound so boring bottomless and rather flat in punch until I hooked them up to my Lynx Aurora (n)'s headphone preamp. Then, when compared with the HD650, both running off my Aurora (n), at the same gain level, the Sundaras really stood out, had a lot more roundness in the punch and the flat bottom end (which is a good thing for linearity) really popped forward without overburdening.

Agree with RME, but also Lynx Aurora has been fantastic for me.

Interface cards that are interchangeable should be more common.

I had an AES16e card, swapped it for TB card - both worked great.