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[Ashermusic]

I had a chance recently to compare Lavry Blue A/D and D/A to some other gear.The following is not scientific I know, strictly anecdotal, so please don't post back saying that. I will readily concede it. But I trust my ears and that of the engineers I was testing with and we all agreed on what we heard. So take it for whatever you feel it is worth.

I went to my engineers house to hook up the Lavry to his PT HD rig. I sang into a Mic  and mic-pre using PTs HD A/D. Then I sang into the HD clocked with the Lavry. Then I sang into the Lavry A/D. Unfortunately because of the way my engineer's rig is hard wired we could only listen back through PT's D/A into his Dynaudio BM6s.

Here is what we both heard:
1. The PT HD sounded pretty good.
2. Clocked to the Lavry not much difference. .
3. The Lavry A/D sounded significantly better than the PT. Not 5% i.e., closer to 30% if I  were to quantify it. After listening to the Lavry A/D the PT  HD A/D sounded "cotten-y". It also sounded warmer to our ears.

Yesterday I went to a listening room and audiomidi.com to test it against the RME Fireface 800,  I sang into a mic  and mic-pre using the Fireface A/D. Then I sang into the HD clocked with the Antelope Audio Isocrone. Then I sang into the Lavry A/D. We listened back through thje Fireface's D/A, then through the Lavry D/A into their Dynaudio BM5s.

Here is what we both heard:
1. The Fireface A/D sounded pretty good.
2. Clocked to the Isocorne not much difference.
3. The Lavry A/D sounded significantly better than the Fireface. Not 5% i.e., closer to 40% if I  were to quantify it. After listening to the Lavry A/D the Fireface A/D sounded "cotten-y". It also sounded warmer to our ears.
4. We then listened to it all back through the Lavry D/A. Even the recordings using the Fireface A/D improved dramatically and the ones done with the Lavry really shined.

My conclusions,.

1. The Lavry A/D is considerably better than the PT HD and the Fireface 800 A/D. The Lavry D/A is considerably better than the Fireface D/A and presumedly the PT HD D/A.

2. To my mind Dan is apparently correct about if the internal clock is properly designed hooking up a presumedly better clock will not improve the sound if it is only one device you are clocking.

3. A lot of so-called  "warmth" that is missing in digital audio is partly the lesser quality of the digital devices being used. When high quality devices like the Lavry Blues are used (and I can only imagine the Gold) instead a lot of the "warmth" is there.

I now understand what expensive digital is all about.

[sui-city]

I second your experience entirely.

These are pretty much exactly the results I found. I also wonder what the Golds must sound like.

For me, the warmth seems to come from the fact that everything is so much more defined. What was previously a low-end and lower-mid smudge through a converter, ended up being defined and clear, warm and embracing through the Lavry's.

As far as the external clock thing goes, the way I understand it is that one can actually end up with a result that is worse than the internal clock, because the external can in fact introduce more jitter.

I have recently taken the attitude that one can own all the mics and pre's in the world, but my number one investment from now on is my monitoring chain. And I have the Blues to thank for this.

The way they changed my perception of sound. I can never go back.