Firewire immune to jitter?

As far as I know, there are no reclockers for Firewire.  I have heard that someone did a reclocker for USB though and it is battery powered and part of the cable.  Rather than buying this, I would recommend the Berkeley USB converter.  USB is not my first choice however.

The connection that delivers the best jitter performance now is actually Ethernet, either DLNA/uPnP or RAAT using Roon.  Here is a study I did of my own XMOS USB versus my own Ethernet:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=155232.0

It is for this reason that I am not doing any new USB interfaces.

If you were to go Ethernet, you could buy an external renderer and drive S/PDIF to your Weiss DAC.  This is the best way to get the full benefits of hi-res up to 192. You may need to use Jriver rather than Audirvana+ however.  I have not had good luck running DLNA Ethernet using Audirvana+.  Jriver works perfectly and sounds great. 

The converter I sell for Ethernet is identical to my Off-Ramp, but has Ethernet input.  It is called the Interchange.  It will deliver sample rates up to 192 with jitter in the 16psec range, my lowest jitter solution.  It must be used with Jriver. $2999.00. A WIFI adapter is also available for $1K.  I believe this to be lowest jitter solution on the market.

If you got a micro-Rendu or UltraRendu from Sonore, this would allow you to go Ethernet and then USB to the DAC. The jitter will be dependent on the clock in the USB interface in the Weiss DAC, so this is not my preferred choice.  These are compatible with DLNA (Jriver), Audirvana+  and Roon.

If you go Ethernet or use the Berkeley USB converter, I would highly recommend using a good S/PDIF cable:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=154425.0

No sense in throwing away low jitter by using a poor cable.

BTW, the cheapest way to getting really low jitter is to use Toslink from your MacBook Pro to the Synchro-Mesh and my Reference BNC cable from Synchro-Mesh to your Weiss DAC. You could compare this to your firewire connection starting at $1198.00 (with OTL option).  30-day money back, less shipping. This would work with Audirvana+.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

Steve, forgive my ignorance but how do you connect a Toslink optical cable on a Mac when there is only a USB and Firewire port.

I believe the earphone jack has Toslink output.  It just needs an adapter.  If you play music and look into the jack, there should be a red light.

Does the quality/Cost of this Toslink cable going into the synchro-mesh paramount? No BNC input port on the Weiss. RCA yes.

Yes, it is important, but I can recommend an inexpensive Toslink cable that I use as reference.

My Reference BNC cable has RCA adapters with it, 75 ohms.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

the Weiss DAC202 offers the best rejection of datastream jitter I have encountered.

Here is an experiment that will show just how well it rejects jitter:

Change the digital source or the cable or both. If the sound quality changes, then it will benefit from a reclocker and a better digital cable. The reclocker will make a bigger difference however. The DAC that is totally immune to incoming jitter is a rare item, no matter what is advertised.

In synchronous S/PDIF , even when source and the DAC clocks are different DAC adjusts its clock to follow average rate of the source. This is usually done with PLL, that often introduces its own jitter. In properly executed asynchronous USB clocks are completely independent.

Certainly true, although good S/PDIF receiver chips add extremely low amounts of jitter. I can compare a direct I2S feed and a S/PDIF feed from the same device and the difference between the two is barely audible and only on certain tracks, at least with my DAC.

Interesting read. Thanks shadorne.
In light of that, I may just replace my firewire cable for a better one. A Diamond or similar. Will look at the used market first.

If the Weiss rejects all jitter, then why would you waste your money on an expensive Firewire cable? Jitter is the only thing you are trying to minimize, nothing else. The reason is that it doesn’t reject all jitter.

Like I said, jitter always matters and the best way to minimize it is a good reclocker that will give you 20psec of jitter like the Synchro-Mesh and secondarily a good cable like my Reference BNC. You can try other reclockers until the cows come home. None of them will beat the Synchro-Mesh:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=154498.0

I’m not trying to make a lot of money here. The SM sells for $599. I don’t need a sale here. I’m just trying to help you optimize your system and give you good advice.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

Up to and including the DAC 8 they did not have "great" clocks, but only good clocks. There are a number of DAC's which outclass them by far in the USB realm.

Also, the issue with USB is as often power supply noise from the PC, including ground noise issues. If you have a laptop it is worth experimenting on battery power vs. not, and also consider a USB isolator.

Most top-tier DAC's now do much better in isolating the USB from the possibility of ground loops, but it's not guaranteed.

All very true. These are some of the reasons why I do Ethernet now and not USB anymore.  Here is a direct comparison of Ethernet to isolated XMOS USB, apples to apples:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=155232.0

Steve N.

Empirical Audio