Flaws in this chain?

If you cannot afford the ~1K for the EA setup, try the iFi SPDIF iPurifier for $150 on Amazon.  You get what you pay for.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

Yes I would call it serious.  The jitter from the ATV is very high.  If you add a Synchro-Mesh reclocker and a Standard or Reference BNC-BNC cable, you not only get 7psec of jitter, it will upsample to 24/96 so your DAC uses a better digital filter.  Inserts between the ATV and the DAC.

Jitter plots:

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=157348.0

You will notice a dramatic improvement in detail, imaging, dynamics and clarity with low jitter.

30-day money-back, less shipping.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

Just try the iFi SPDIF iPurifier for $150 on Amazon. You can return it if it does not make a difference.  I use two of them for my home theater.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

Jitter causes the image to smear and even have halos. Vocalists seem 2-3 feet wide. Cowbells sound dull. Pianos sound warm and bloomy. Difficult to pinpoint deep sounds in the image.

Reducing jitter is like cleaning the dirty window so you can see clearly.  Improved clarity.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

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It has both coax and Toslink in and out.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

I guess my point is why spend even $150 to correct (purify, decrapify) the signal from a $100 Apple TV? Seems like I should save my money until I can come up with a better wireless solution....whatever that would be and however much that would cost.

You will end up playing for $1000 de-jitter for your $1000 device or $150 for your $100 device.  They all need it.

Okay, just now spent some time researching music via iTunes via ATV. SQ stinks. Even I can hear it. The only way I can describe it is muddy.

No surprise.  iTunes stinks and the jitter from the 24/48 ATV is high.  What you need to understand is that it's okay to have a cheap digital source like ATV or Sonos, as long as you put the money into reducing the jitter from it.  It's only is only providing the data.  It's the de-jitter device that makes the sound quality great.  I can use a really cheap old transport for playing CD's, but adding the Synchro-Mesh and  good digital coax cable makes it a world class source.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

But here's a question....why don't device makers, at least high end device makers, include some method for decreasing jitter in the device itself?

Many DAC's have reclockers and FIFO's inside to minimize jitter.  The problem is that IME most of them do a poor job of it.  This is why I recommend a DAC with no reclocker on the coax input, like Metrum or Audio Note. 

USB interfaces also have a Master Clock in them, but most do a poor job of achieving low jitter in the USB interface as well. You can get an external USB converter with lower jitter, but you will also need one of these to achieve good SQ with USB:

https://sotm-usa.com/collections/sotm-ultra/products/copy-of-tx-usbultra-regenerator-1

Without this, you might as well stick with S/PDIF coax and a reclocker.  It will sound better.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

kahlenz I think you hit the nail on the head from everything I have read about jitter on engineering and pro audio sites it's another blown out of proportion worry any jitter produced is outside the audible range and if you are using a well built dac no need to concern yourself with it.

The industry DAC designers were asked: what is the biggest issue with digital audio playback?

The unanimous answer was "jitter" was the #1 issue.

Minimize it or you will never realize what digital audio can offer.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

...the digital stream , the 1’s and 0’s, are sent to the DAC that converts to analog, as long as those 1’s and 0’s get there the DAC reconstructs them using it’s clock since the embedded clock information and any jitter that was sent in the stream has been isolated out

In an ideal world, but that's not the world we live in.  PLL's and downstream buffers, registers and dividers are all affected.  IF there is a reclocker in the DAC, then the effect is usually less, but if you can change coax cables and hear the difference, then source jitter still matters.  If it really worked as good as you claim, then everyone here would only need a $20 Markertek coax cable to achieve the best SQ.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

Yes, jitter was the #1 issue which is why I'm glad they have figured it out in well designed modern dacs that have been made in the last 20 years or so.

Some designers have started to figure it out, but not many IME. Most USB interfaces suck because of the high jitter.  Most internal reclockers are poorly implemented and don't do a good job.

 I will admit that the jitter in the average component has improved a lot since the inception of the CD, but most designers still have a LOT to learn.

I recently made improvements to my reclocker that reduced the jitter from 22psec to 7psec.  Did I notice the difference?  Absolutely.  Did my customers notice the difference? Absolutely.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

I use a $20 blue jeans belden coax cable and my SQ is good enough for me. Obviously you know more about this than I do. All I know is what I have read.

Have you tried a better cable to see if that makes a difference?

Have you tried another source, like a Sonos and compared that to your transport? Two different transports?

If there are differences in any of these, then your system will likely benefit from low jitter sources.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

So, you didn't hear any difference in different sources or different cables?

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

Any difference in cables or sources is due to jitter, unless you have a ground-loop noise problem with one device and not another. Unlikely.

The point is that if you DO hear any difference, the it is likely that a low jitter source will make things a lot better.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio