Until you can not hear it. That is you, not some reviewer of dealer. The 'ears' rule.
How low can we go with JITTER now?
I must say at the onset, I sincerely enjoy what I have now by way of Audio Quality…. BUT I feel I can move further on… I’m pretty sure.
Sooooo….. What is the least amount of JITTER which is audibly discernable? In other words, about where do we get to before we’re beating a dead horse on the JITTER issue? …and how do we know just how darn much JITTER we’re dealing with anyhow?
Would adding a word re-clocking device between a PC sound card and my DAC such as a Black Lion or some other, be the best path for improving upon my audio quality, or should some other aspect be addressed instead?
Say a Re-clocker is added, then there’s got to be another cable, more connections, more loss… greater chance of adding that stuff about HF interference… etc.
I’m bemused and confused as to which item (s) need the foremost attention though.
Sound card?
Re-clocking device?
Getting off the grid with a DC based upgrade for my BC DAC 3 TO THE NEW vb line?
Or all of the above?
Seeing a need for the ability to handle formats upwards of 24/192 I see two items of significant controversy in that appraisal.
1 Lessening JITTER… natch’
2 Providing for greater word lengths and bit rates into my DAC from my PC as only via it’s SPDIF; BNC; AES, inputs can I convert formats above 16/48.. ie., Sound card
Any thoughts on how you’ve moved along these avenues or any experience with stepping up the sound card ladder, or using RE-CLOCKING devices would be appreciated!
I can ill afford much more hair pulling! Thanks immensely.
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Buconero117, I respect your point of view that it is only what you hear in your system that matters to you. On the other hand, sometimes you don't know what you are missing until you try changing it. I thought that my USB from the mac mini to my PSA DLIII was really great, until I added a M2Tech Hiface USB to SPDIF device and it improved immensely. Was it the jitter reduction? I don't know. Since the optical output is very very close to this, I assume it is jitter reduction, but how do I know? I don't believe there are any studies on how much jitter is truly audible. If there are, I would love to read them. Very high jitter is audible as a somewhat disjointed blurred soundstage and rhythm. But can we hear any reduction less than 200 ps? If a device reduces jitter to below 1 ps, would we know? I have come to the conclusion that it is the analog output stages of the DAC that make a DAC truly great and beyond a point we are just chasing numbers. |
Hi Blindjim - I use a reclocker, the Empirical Audio Pace Car 2 (with Audiocom's Superclock 4), in my computer based setup. The addition of the reclocker to my system resulted in greater perceived resolution, better imaging focus, less shrillness in the high frequencies, and a lower noise floor. I wrote a review of the Pace Car 2 if you would like to know more about my experiences with it. Suffice to say, it made me a true believer in the importance of reducing jitter for getting the most from computer based audio. Whether the results of lowering jitter would be more beneficial than the other changes you mentioned, I cannot say. Good luck. |
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