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Understanding Jitter in PC Audio

I have a fundamental doubt on the PC audio as a source. IN a traditional CDT/Dac combination we have a clock signal coming out in the SPDIF signal. Apologies if it sounds too silly but am planning of builing an HDD based transport as an alternative to my classe CDT1 :). was planning on a USB output from a dedicated PC and then use a good USB to SPDIF converter.

My Understanding is that in case of a HDD based transport, the File is converted into an Async format (Lossless) . This is then played via a PC/Mac and when given out as digital out, the clock that is synched to is the machines own clock (Am I right ?)

a) does this impact jitter of the Lossless file in anyway ? also what would the difference between an I2S and an USB interface be in this case as the clock is not really the original clock ?
b) Can the original information without any timing errors be reconstructed from this using an external reclocker like the empirical audio device OR Monarchy ?
c) If the clock is not present will an external DAC just assume the input to be as per its own clock. (If the rip were done by CDROM using the same clock freq as a DAc give any added benefit)
arj

Showing 1 response by detlof

detlof
1,899 posts
 
I hope Steve Nugent of Empirical Audio reads this so he can give you an expert answer.
As far as my own two ears are concerned, I feel I can put your "fundamental doubts" at ease. Even with a modest USB to SPDIF converter like the TRENDS, the sound holds its own with very much more expensive CDT/DAC combinations and using Steve's SPOILER with PACE CAR reclocker you get a practically jitter free signal, the sound of which easily surpasses both the Zanden Combo as well as the DCS stack in my rig in all the important parameters we audiophiles love.
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